V. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIE»0 


iMni  1^*"  "'^^°    - 


IV  i 


3   1822  01132  9240 


WILLIAM  PEPPER,  M.D.,  LL.D. 


I 


/F.T.    44 


WILLIAM  PEPPER 

M.D.,  LL.D. 


(1843—1898) 


PROVOST    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    PENNSYLVANIA 


BY 


FRANCIS  NEWTON  THORPE 


PHILADELPHIA  &  LONDON 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT     COMPANY 

1904 


Copyright,  1904 
By  J.   B.   LippiNCOTT  Company 

Published  February,  1904 


Printed  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company 
Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A. 


IN  MEMORY 

OF 

WILLIAM   PEPPER 

DOCTOR    OF    MEDICINE 
DOCTOR     OF     LAWS 

WHOSE    SERVICES    TO     HIS    NATIVE    CITY 

IN    ART,  SCIENCE,   AND   INDUSTRY 

PROMOTE    THE    WELFARE 

OF    ITS    PEOPLE 

AND 

WILL  ENDEAR  HIS  NAME 

TO   POSTERITY 


fVbat  other  things  I  hitherto  have  done 

Have  fallen  from  me,  are  no  longer  mine  ; 

I  have  passed  on  beyond  them,  and  have  left  them 

As  milestones  on  the  way.      What  lies  before  me. 

That  is  still  mine,  and  while  it  is  unfinished 

No  one  shall  draw  me  from  it,  or  persuade  me 

By  promises  of  ease,  or  wealth,  or  honor. 

Till  I  behold  the  finished  dome  uprise 

Complete,  as  now   I  see  it  in  my  thought. 

Longfellow's   '*  Michael  Angelo." 


PREFACE 

A  FEW  months  after  Dr.  Pepper's  death,  his  family 
placed  his  private  papers  in  my  hands  with  the  re- 
quest that,  if  possible,  I  prepare  from  them  a  sketch 
of  his  life.  From  these  papers,  from  information  made  ac- 
cessible by  his  family,  from  his  friends,  from  files  of  Phila- 
delphia newspapers,  and  from  other  sources,  chiefly  my  own 
knowledge,  I  have  obtained  the  material  utilized  in  the 
volume  now  offered  to  the  public. 

I  first  met  Dr.  Pepper  in  September,  1 885,  when  I  entered 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  as  Fellow  in  History.  My 
efforts  to  increase  the  facilities  for  studying  American  history 
at  the  University  brought  me  in  somewhat  intimate  relations 
with  him  and  began  an  acquaintance  which  ripened  and 
strengthened  till  his  death.  I  saw  much  and  knew  much  of 
the  man  during  the  thirteen  years  I  was  associated  with  the 
University  as  Fellow  and  as  Professor  of  American  Constitu- 
tional History. 

In  the  May  before  his  death  I  had  occasion  to  examine  a 
mass  of  telegrams,  letters,  papers,  and  manuscripts  which  had 
collected  in  my  library  during  these  thirteen  years,  and  I  dis- 
covered more  than  four  hundred  letters,  notes,  and  telegrams 
which  he  had  sent  me.  I  destroyed  all  save  one  or  two 
letters,  with  no  thought  that  I  should  have  use  for  them. 

On  February  1 8,  1 898,  from  Palm  Beach,  Florida,  whither 
he  had  gone  to  recuperate  (see  p.  506),  he  wrote  me :  "  Thanks 
for  your  kind  note.     I  shall  be  back  early  in  March,  I  trust 

7 


PREFACE 

in  fine  condition :  will  try  to  set  the  clock  back  a  bit  so  as 
to  catch  up."  After  his  return  home  I  had  several  notes  from 
him  and  met  him  a  few  times,  the  last  on  May  26. 

Early  in  May,  1898,  a  New  York  publishing  house  sug- 
gested that  some  papers  of  mine,  most  of  which  had  appeared 
in  magazines,  be  brought  out  in  book  form.  At  first  I  was 
pleased  with  the  idea,  and  wrote  the  following  letter,  which 
I  found  preserved  among  Dr.  Pepper's  papers : 

"  University  of  Pennsylvania, 

"The  College,  May  13,  1898. 
"  Dear  Dr.  Pepper  : 

"  Your  most  considerate  letter  is  received.  Let  me  thank  you 
for  its  friendly  interest.  It  is  my  purpose  to  include  as  a  dedication 
in  my  next  volume,  entitled  *A  Century  of  American  Politics/  the 
enclosed  lines, — modified  as  may  seem  expedient  to  you  and 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"  Francis  N.  Thorpe." 

Proposed  dedication : 

TO 

WILLIAM    PEPPER 

DOCTOR    OF    MEDICINE       DOCTOR    OF    LAWS 

WHOSE    SERVICES 

TO    HIS    NATIVE    CITY 

IN    ART    SCIENCE    AND    INDUSTRY 

PROMOTE    THE    WELFARE 

OF    ITS    PEOPLE 

AND    WILL    ENDEAR    HIS    NAME 

TO    POSTERITY 
THIS    VOLUME    IS    DEDICATED 

I  decided,  finally,  not  to  collect  the  essays,  but  the  dedi- 
cation, slightly  changed,  I    have  inserted  in   this  volume. 


PREFACE 

Could  I  have  foreseen  the  destined  use  of  the  lines,  doubt- 
less I  would  not  have  been  able  to  make  them  more 
appropriate. 

Had  it  not  been  for  my  personal  knowledge  of  Dr.  Pepper 
I  could  not  have  undertaken  this  sketch  of  his  life.  The 
last  time  I  met  him,  at  his  home,  he  told  me  of  his  approach- 
ing departure  for  California.  He  looked  old  and  weary,  was 
much  cast  down,  and  spoke  doubtfully  of  the  future.  "  I 
am  a  worn-out  old  man ;  I  am  through,"  he  said,  as  he  bade 
me  farewell. 

Had  I  not  possessed  some  share  of  his  confidence  and  for 
many  years  enjoyed  friendly  relations  with  him  I  could  not 
have  made  an  interpretation  of  the  fragmentary  mass  of  his 
private  papers,  or  of  that  notable  supplement — for  biographi- 
cal purposes — the  record  of  the  times  in  which  he  lived, 
preserved  in  the  press-files  of  his  native  city.  This  record 
extends  through  nearly  forty  years,  during  the  last  twenty- 
five  of  which  he  was  identified  with  nearly  every  beneficent 
public  movement  of  magnitude  in  Philadelphia. 

But  I  should  omit  a  primary  and  most  helpful  source  of 
information  were  I  to  neglect  to  express  my  sense  of  obliga- 
tion to  his  friends,  too  numerous  to  name  individually,  with 
whom  reposed  some  tender  memory  of  the  man,  and  who,  in 
one  way  or  another,  have  given  me  aid  and  counsel. 

To  Dr.  Pepper's  brother-in-law,  the  late  James  Biddle 
Leonard,  Esq.,  I  was  most  deeply  indebted  for  assistance. 
He  knew  Dr.  Pepper  intimately  fi'om  early  childhood,  and 
the  relations  between  them  throughout  life  were  most  tender 
and  confidential.  I  was  enabled  to  enjoy  Mr.  Leonard's 
counsel,  which  was  of  the  kind,  in  a  work  of  this  nature, 
surpassing  all  others  in  value.  It  is  a  consolation  to  me  that 
the  first  draft  of  this  sketch  reached  Mr.  Leonard  and  was 

9 


PREFACE 

read    by    him    before    his   sudden   and   lamented   death    in 
London. 

I  have  been  assisted,  throughout  the  preparation  of  the 
volume,  by  the  sympathy  and  invaluable  counsel  of  Dr. 
Horace  Howard  Furness,  a  life-long  friend  of  Dr.  Pepper, 
and  as  a  Trustee  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  familiar 
with  his  aspirations  and  work  in  education  ;  by  Mrs.  Cornelius 
Stevenson,  Sc.D.,  Secretary  of  the  Archaeological  Museums, 
and  for  many  years  a  collaborateur  with  him  in  educational 
and  civic  work  ;  by  Horace  Jayne,  M.D.,  Dean  of  the  College 
during  the  greater  part  of  Dr.  Pepper's  Provostship  ;  by  the 
Honorable  George  F.  Edmunds ;  by  Mr.  William  Piatt 
Pepper;  and  by  Mr.  George  Wharton  Pepper.  Several  of 
these  friends  read  the  volume  in  manuscript,  and  Mr.  George 
Wharton  Pepper  was  kind  enough  to  read  it  in  the  proof-sheets. 

I  am  also  indebted  for  aid  and  counsel  to  General  Isaac 
J.  Wistar,  to  Mr.  Thomas  Dolan,  to  Alfred  Stengel,  M.D., 
to  R.  C.  Harrington,  M.D.,  and  to  Rev.  Jesse  Y.  Burk,  a 
classmate  of  Dr.  Pepper,  and  now  for  many  years  Secretary 
to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University. 

To  Mrs.  Cornelius  Stevenson,  Secretary,  to  Dr.  William 
Powell  Wilson,  Director,  to  Mr.  Frederick  B.  Miles,  Treas- 
urer, and  to  Mr.  John  Thomson,  Librarian,  I  am  indebted, 
respectively,  for  data  for  the  chapters  on  the  Archaeological 
Museums,  the  Commercial  Museums,  University  Extension, 
and  the  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia,  with  each  of  which 
institutions  Dr.  Pepper  was  intimately  associated  as  founder, 
as  promoter,  and  as  president. 

The  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  College 
of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  of  which  Dr.  Pepper  was  a 
member,  have  placed  me  under  obligations  by  extending 
every  facility  to  utilize  their  rich  collections. 

10 


PREFACE 

Dr.  Pepper  once  said  to  me,  about  five  years  before  his 
death,  "  You  will  write  my  Hfe  some  day."  We  had  been 
conversing  over  a  new  biography  of  Franklin,  in  whom  he 
always  took  a  profound  interest.  "  Oh,  no,"  I  replied  ;  "  it 
would  be  impossible  to  write  your  life :  no  one  could  tell 
how  busy  a  man  you  are." 

There  remain  many  who  can  say  ot  things  touched  on  in 
this  book,  quorum  pars  fui,  and  these  may  read  their  own 
biography  between  the  lines.  Conscious  of  my  limitations  as 
a  biographer,  I  have  desired  only  to  make  this  volume  a  fair 
memorial  of  a  remarkable  man,  and  I  commit  the  book  to 
the  forbearing  judgment  of  those  best  able  to  measure  the 
difficulties  of  the  task  entrusted  to  me. 

Francis  Newton  Thorpe. 


II 


CONTENTS 

PART   I. 

THE    PHYSICIAN    AND    MEDICAL    WRITER  p^Gg 

I.   Youth 19 

II.   The  Hospital 36 

III.  Medical  Director  of   the  Centennial ;    the  Address  on  Higher 

Medical  Education 61 

IV.  Physician  and  Writer  (  1 881-1887) 84 

V.    Physician  and  Writer  (i 887-1 898) 10 1 

VI.   The  Pepper  Clinical    Laboratory;    Estimate   of  Dr.   Pepper   as 

Physician  and  Writer      131 

PART   II. 

THE    EDUCATOR 

1.  The  University  (i 862-1  881) 157 

II.  The  University  (i 881-1884) 179 

III.  The  University  :   Educational  Address  (  i  885-1886) 198 

IV.  The  University  (1887-1888) 227 

V.   The  University   (i 888-1 890) 269 

VT.   The  University  ;  Resignation  from  the  Provostship  (  i  890-1894)  286 

PART   III. 

THE    CITIZEN 

I.  The  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia     369 

II.   University  Extension      385 

III.  The  Philadelphia  Museums 394 

IV.  The  Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art 423 

V.   Incidents  and  Characteristics 454 

VI.   The  Closing  Years 492 

VII.   In  Memoriam 520 

Index 545 

13 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


William   Pepper  JEt.  44 Frontispiece 

George  Pepper  (1779-1846)  JEt.  62 20 

George  Pepper  (i 779-1 846)  JEt.  22 22 

From  the  portrait  by  St.  Memin 

William   Pepper  JEt.  4 30 

William   Pepper  (the  Elder)   1808-1864 34 

"Fairy  Hill,"  Country  Seat  of  George  Pepper     74 

From  the  painting  by  Russell  Smith 
(See  note  on  page  24) 

The  Pepper   Clinical  Laboratory,  University  of  Pennsylvania.  132 

William   Pepper  ^t.  53 348 

Pepper    Hall,   Arch^ological    Museum,    University  of   Pennsyl- 
vania      452 

Statue  of  William   Pepper,  University  of  Pennsylvania     ....  538 

Tablet  on  Pedestal  of  the  Pepper  Statue 540 


15 


Part  I 

THE   PHYSICIAN  AND 
MEDICAL  WRITER 


WILLIAM   PEPPER 


I 

YOUTH 
1843-1865 

WILLIAM  PEPPER,  the  son  of  William  Pepper 
and  Sarah  Piatt,  was  born  at  1215  Walnut 
Street,  Philadelphia,  on  August  21,  1843.  -^^^ 
father,  known  in  the  annals  of  medicine  as  the  elder 
Pepper,  was  also  bom  in  Philadelphia,  and,  after  being 
graduated  with  highest  honors  at  Princeton  in  1829,  began 
the  study  of  medicine  under  Dr.  Thomas  T.  Hewson,  in 
the  Medical  Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1832 — the  year  when  the 
Asiatic  cholera  appeared  in  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Pepper  had 
made  his  arrangements  to  pursue  further  medical  studies 
in  Paris,  but  delayed  his  departure,  freely  gave  his  services 
in  the  cholera  hospital,  and  remained  on  duty  in  his  na- 
tive city  until  the  plague  was  stayed.  In  Paris  he  was  a 
fellow-student  with  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  who,  writing 
half  a  century  later  of  his  early  associates  and  medical  studies 
there,  spoke  of  Pepper  as  "a  strong  man."^  For  an  American 
to  pursue  a  graduate  course  in  medicine  at  a  European  uni- 
versity was  as  rare  in  the  thirties  as  the  subsequent  careers  of 
Pepper  and  Holmes  were  notable. 


^  Dr.  Holmes  to  Coleman  Sellers ;   mentioned  in  Mr.  Sellers's 
letter  to  Dr.  Pepper,  July  7,  1887. 

19 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1843-65 

In  1834  Dr.  Pepper  returned  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
soon  became  recognized  as  the  chief  consultant.  He  was 
elected  physician  to  the  Philadelphia  Dispensary,  to  Wills 
Hospital,  to  the  Pennsylvania  Institution  for  the  Instruction 
of  the  Blind,  and  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  with  which 
latter  institution  he  was  identified  twenty-six  years.  In  i860 
he  was  chosen  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medi- 
cine in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  which  chair  he  filled 
until  failing  health,  in  1 864,  compelled  him  to  resign  it.  His 
clinical  lectures  were  famed  for  clearness,  conciseness,  and 
utility — qualities  which  also  distinguished  the  discharge  of 
his  professional  duties,  which  early  in  his  career  became  so 
heavy  as  to  undermine  his  strength.  On  account  of  his  in- 
creasing practice  he  was  not  a  prolific  medical  writer,  but  his 
contributions  to  medical  journals  were  clear  in  style,  practical 
in  character,  and  highly  valued  by  his  profession.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and  of  many  medical 
societies.  His  early  death,  on  October  15,  1864,  was  widely 
deplored.  A  passage  in  the  memoir  of  him  prepared  at  the 
request  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  reads  like 
a  prophecy  of  his  greatly  distinguished  son  : 

"  At  the  early  age  of  fifty-five,  he  died,  just  in  the  maturity  of 
his  mental  ability  and  of  his  capacity  for  usefulness ;  at  the  period 
when  the  arduous  labors  of  a  lifetime  would  have  shown  their  best 
results ;  when  the  richest  fruits  of  larger  study  and  ripe  experience 
were  about  to  be  gathered,  giving  still  higher  honor  to  him  and 
greater  benefits  to  the  community.' 


"  1 


'Thomas  S.  Kirkbride,  M.D.,  Biographical  Memoir  of  William 
Pepper,  M.D.,  prepared  at  the  request  of  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians of  Philadelphia,  1866. 


GEORGE    PEPPER    (1779-1846)    .^T.    62 


1-. 


.'IS 


is! 


^ 


1843-65]  YOUTH 

Of  the  founder  of  the  Pepper  family  in  America,  Henry 
Pepper,^  Httle  is  known  other  than  that  he  was  bom  near 
Strasburg,  Germany,  January  5,  1739,  and,  with  his  wife 
Catharine,  sailed  from  Rotterdam  for  Philadelphia  in  the  ship 
Minerva,  October  13,  1769;  that  he  settled  in  ShafFerstown, 
now  in  Lebanon  County,  Pennsylvania;  that  in  1774  he 
removed  to  Philadelphia,  and  died  in  that  city  March  11, 
1808.  The  descendants  of  Henry  and  Catharine  Pepper, 
in  the  female  lines,  have  borne  twenty  surnames:  Cochran, 
Scott,  Gerhard,  Watts,  Harris,  Leonard,  Wright,  Gardette, 
Maury,  Gibson,  Ibbetson,  Thomson,  Miller,  V^an  Reed, 
Biddle,  Ricketts,  Rawle,  Gwinn,  Vaux,  and  Morris.  His 
second  son,  George,  father  of  the  elder  Pepper,  was  born 
in  Philadelphia,  March  15,  1779.  The  Pepper  family,  in  the 
eighteenth  century  and  during  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth, were  communicants  with  the  Lutheran  Church  of 
Zion  and  St.  Michael.  Few  church  edifices  in  the  early 
history  of  America  had  a  more  interesting  history  than  St. 
Michael's.  It  stood  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Fourth  and 
Cherry  Streets,  and  for  many  years  was  famed  for  being  the 
largest  church  building  in  America.  On  account  of  its  size 
Dr.  Franklin's  fijneral  services  were  held  in  it,  as  were  also  the 
memorial  services  for  Washington,  Philadelphia  at  the  time 
of  his  death  being  the  national  capital.  The  early  identifica- 
tion of  William  Pepper's  ancestors  with  this  church,  and  its 
association  with  the  name  of  Franklin,  possess  more  than  a 
passing  interest  because  of  the  marriage  of  William  Pepper 
with  a  descendant  of  Dr.  Franklin. 

George  Pepper,  William's  grandfather,  was  entered  in  the 
counting-house    of  Willing  &  Francis,  eminent   merchants 

'  Heinrich  PfefFer. 

21 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1843-^ 

of  Philadelphia,  where  he  acquired  the  sound  business  habiv 
which  distinguished  him  through  life.     No  other  citizen  c\ 
Philadelphia    in   his   time,  with   the  exception   of  Stephe 
Girard,  equalled  George  Pepper  in  business  sagacity.    Lonj 
before  he  reached  middle  life  he  was  one  of  the  wealthies 
men  of  the  city.     At  his  death,  in  1846,^  he  created  a  trus 
estate  under  the  advice  of  Horace    Binney,  and  the  grea 
Philadelphia  lawyer  received  ten  thousand  dollars  for  draw 
ing  his  will :  probably  the  largest  fee  ever  paid  him  for  such 
a  service.     A  portrait  of  the  grandfather,  at  the  age  of  twenty-l 
two,  by  St.  Memin,  strikingly  resembles  one  of  the  familiar 
portraits  of  Robert  Burns.     The  large  estate  which  George 
Pepper  left  has  been  a  source   of  many  benefactions  to  the 
city  of  Philadelphia.     Several  million  dollars  derived  from  it 
have  been  devoted,  by  gift  and  bequest,  to  public  uses,  ofl 
which  the  best  known  are  the  city  hospitals,  the  free  public 
library,   and   the   University    of     Pennsylvania.     No   other 
estate  accumulated  in  Philadelphia  during  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  excepting  that  of  Stephen  Girard, 
has  contributed  so  generously  to  science  and  education.^ 
William  Pepper's  mother,  Sarah  Piatt,  was  descended  fi-om 

'January  6,  1846;  see  North  American^  January  8,  1846.  He 
was  married  May  13,  1802,  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Helmuth,  rector 
of  Zion  and  St.  Michael,  to  Mary  Catherine  Seckel  (June  7,  1780 
— June  21,  1 861),  daughter  of  John  David  Seckel  (January  29, 
1749 — November  16,  18 15),  and  Mary  M.  (maiden  name  un- 
known, November  28,  1760 — November  30,  1809),  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

'  These  benefactions  were  made  by  George  Pepper,  son  of  the 
above  (June  11,  1808-May  2,  1890),  whose  portrait  hangs  in  the 
Rittenhouse  Club,  and  by  William  Pepper,  the  subject  of  this 
biography. 


GEORGE    PEPPER    (  I  779— I  846)    ^T.    22 
From  the  portrait  by  St.  Memin 


1843-65]  YOUTH 

an  old  Quaker  family  of  New  Jersey.  The  father's  delicate 
health  and  exacting  and  extensive  practice  relegated  the  train- 
ing of  the  children  almost  wholly  to  the  mother's  hand,  and 
never  was  a  mother  better  qualified  for  the  task.  The  per- 
sonal charm  which  distinguished  her  children  reflected  her 
own.  She  survived  her  husband  many  years  and  lived  to 
witness  the  vast  labor  which  her  son  accomplished  and  the 
high  honors  which  he  won.^ 

'  Of  William  Pepper's  ancestry  on  the  maternal  side  it  is  known 
that  Thomas  Piatt  was  living  in  Burlington  County,  New  Jersey, 
from  1712  to  1722,  and  that  several  of  his  children  were  baptized 
in  St.  Mary's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  at  Burlington.  It  has 
been  thought  that  he  was  descended  from  Richard  Piatt,  who  set- 
tled in  Connecticut  in  1638.  On  November  i,  1739,  Thomas 
Piatt  married  Sarah  Dennis,  in  Monmouth  County,  New  Jersey. 
He  died  in  1768,  at  the  age  of  fifty-three.  His  wife  survived  him 
thirty-six  years.  Their  son  John  was  born  in  New  Hanover 
township,  Burlington  County,  near  the  hamlet  of  Plattsburg.  In 
1777  he  received  a  commission  in  the  Delaware  regiment  of  foot 
in  the  Continental  establishment  under  Colonel  Hall,  and  served 
throughout  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  one  of  the  original 
members  of  the  Delaware  branch  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 
He  was  married  at  the  Upper  Springfield  meeting-house  in  Bur- 
lington County  to  Alice  Stevenson,  daughter  of  William  Stevenson, 
of  Upper  Freehold  Township,  Monmouth  County.  He  died  on 
his  estate,  Chatham,  near  Wilmington,  Delaware,  September  23, 
1784.  She  died  July  4,  1806.  As  she  was  a  Friend  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Wilmington  meeting,  and  as  her  death  appears  upon 
their  records,  it  is  supposed  that  she  was  buried  in  their  burial 
ground  at  Wilmington.  Their  son,  William  Piatt,  born  in  1790, 
married  Maria  Taylor  March  27,  18 16.  Their  second  daughter 
and  third  child,  Sarah  Piatt,  married  William  Pepper  Juue  9,  1840. 
She  died  March  22,  1895. 

23 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1843-6511  i^ 


In  a  sketch  written  in  his  twenty-fifth  year  WiUiam  Peppeijj  ^ 
gives  some  account  of  his  childhood  and  early  youth  :^ 

"  I  do  not  think  I  was  at  all  a  precocious  child.  I  remember 
first  going  to  school  when  nearly  seven  years  old,  ignorant  of  the 
very  letters  of  the  alphabet.  Before  this  time,  however,  I  had 
amused  myself  much  with  the  elementary  operations  of  arithmetic, 
especially  performed  in  a  mental  way,  and  throughout  life  I  have 
retained  the  same  taste  for  numerical  relations.  My  childhood  was 
a  most  happy  one ;  blest  with  a  most  kind  and  loving,  though  judi- 
cious father,  who,  even  when  overwhelmed  by  the  anxious  cares 
of  his  profession,  had  always  a  fond  sympathy  with  our  childish 
pleasures ;  with  a  mother  whose  very  presence  and  still  more 
tender  smile  and  sweet,  soft  voice  were  the  fruits  and  proofs  of 
most  entire  and  constant  unselfishness  j  yet  not  weak  or  un- 
dignified ;  most  tender,  yet  not  foolishly  indulgent  mother  love  I 
have  ever  seen.  A  brother  whose  friendship  and  love  have  been  a 
life-long  joy  and  stay  ; '  sisters  whose  sympathy  and  affections  made 
home  always  a  welcome  place  to  me. 

"  The  winter  months  we  passed  in  the  city,  but  when  early 
summer  came  our  father,  with  self-denying  wisdom,  would  secure 
some  healthful  quiet  country  retreat  where  the  burning  dog-days 
were  passed,  while  he  stayed  in  the  city  at  his  post,  daily  battling 
with  disease.^  When  about  ten  years  old  I  went  to  Mr.  Keith's 
school  and  remained  there,  studying  spasmodically  and  rather  lan- 
guidly, for  four  years.      Mr.  Keith,  who  was  without  a  profound 


^December  i,  1867.     Pepper  MSS. 

'This  was  his  brother  George  Pepper,  born  April  i,  1841  ; 
died  September  14,  1872. 

^  The  elder  Pepper's  father,  during  the  summer  months,  lived  at 
his  country  seat.  Fairy  Hill,  a  place  of  great  beauty,  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Schuylkill.  The  site  is  now  occupied  by  Laurel  Hill 
Cemetery.  Fairy  Hill  was  given  up  by  the  elder  Pepper  because 
he  considered  it  unhealthful. 


24 


JEt.  15]  YOUTH 

knowledge  of  the  classics,  or,  I  fear,  a  very  comprehensive  idea  of 
the  object  to  be  secured  by  their  study,  most  religiously  drilled  us 
in  the  rudiments  of  Latin  and  Greek,  year  after  year,  to  the  almost 
entire  exclusion  of  History,  Geography,  and  English,  and  entirely 
ignored  the  claims  of  Natural  Philosophy.  His  discipline  was  not 
at  all  strict. 

"  I  left  with  an  ill-disciplined,  ill-stored  mind ;  with  a  certain 
fluency  in  expression  and  composition ;  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  Greek  grammar ;  a  fair  mastery  of  Caesar, — Firi 
Romae, — some  simple  Greek  readers,  and  the  first  three  books  of 
Homer.  The  next  year  I  was  sent  to  Dr.  Faires's  school,  not  so 
much  with  the  view  of  preparing  for  college  as  of  awaiting  my 
fifteenth  birthday.  This  year,  therefore,  was  almost  wasted.  I 
was  impatient  at  the  delay  and  received  no  encouragement  to  under- 
take any  studies  additional  to  the  school  tasks  with  which  I  was 
partly  familiar.  Soon  after  my  fifteenth  birthday,  in  September, 
1858,  I  entered  the  Freshman  class  at  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  course  of  study  then  consisted  of  the  Classics,  under 
Allen  and  Jackson  ;  Mathematics,  under  Kendall ;  Logic,  Rhetoric, 
and  English  Literature,  under  Coppee ;  Moral  Philosophy  and 
Political  Economy,  under  Goodwin  ;  Chemistry,  Astronomy,  and 
Natural  Science,  under  Frazer.  At  this  time  the  discipline  was 
lax,  the  prevailing  habits  of  study  very  poor,  and  the  students  so 
young  that  most  of  them  were  incapable  of  appreciating  the  in- 
estimable advantage  they  were  daily  neglecting.  Once  or  twice 
during  the  course  I  secured  the  first  honor,  but  finally  graduated 
second  in  the  class  of  about  twenty-five  and  delivered  a  verbose 
valedictory  to  a  large  audience." 

William  Pepper  was  a  bright,  merry,  healthy  child  of  a 

•  lovable  disposition  and  docile.     He  was  well  developed  and 

rather  large  for  his  years.     His  head  was  large  and  well  set ; 

the  neck  extended  as  if  in  eagerness,  and  the  head  carried 

forward,  a  distinguishing  feature  in  earlier  as  well  as  in  later 

25 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1858 

years.  His  features  were  strongly  marked  as  early  as  his 
fourth  year,  and  a  picture  of  him  at  this  time  proves  that  in 
facial  appearance  sometimes  "  the  child  is  father  of  the 
man."  The  calm  influence  which  his  mother  threw  around 
him,  her  noble  character  and  the  lofty  ideals  which  she  held 
up  to  him,  were  the  restraining  influences  of  his  early  life. 
He  was  not  an  emotional  child,  a  fact,  perhaps,  explicable 
from  his  inheritance  of  Teutonic  calm  on  the  paternal  side, 
and  of  Quaker  self-control  on  the  maternal.  His  qualities  were 
a  combination  of  unusual  mental  vigor  and  self-command. 
He  grew  up  a  big-limbed  boy  of  vigorous  physique,  not  an 
athlete,  but  fond  of  out-door  life,  notably  of  cricket. 

The  September  day  ^  when  the  class  of  1 862  matriculated 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  was  destined  to  be  a 
memorable  one  in  the  annals  of  that  institution.  That  class 
was  to  contribute  in  gifts  and  services  to  the  institution  vastly 
more  than  any  other.  Two  of  its  members  were  to  become 
Provosts ;  several  to  serve  as  Trustees ;  three  as  professors 
and  one  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  for  more 
than  twenty  years.^  The  gifts  of  money  alone  to  the  Uni- 
versity from  members  of  this  class  have  aggregated  several 
million  dollars,  and  their  donations  to  the  libraries  and 
museums,  and  the  various  departments  of  the  institution,  have 
been  numerous,  varied,  and  eminently  useful. 

The  University  in  1858  occupied  ground  on  the  west  side 
of  Ninth  Street,  comprising  the  greater  portion  of  the  site 
now  covered  by  the  United  States  post-office.  There  were 
two  severely  plain  rectangular  buildings  of  three  stories  each, 
with  rough-cast  walls;   the  northern,  the  College  building; 

^September  8,  1858. 

^  Rev.  Jesse  Y.  Burk. 

26 


^T.  15]  YOUTH 

the  southern,  the  Medical  Hall,  with  a  wide  intervening 
campus.^  The  University  consisted  of  a  Department  of  Arts, 
a  flourishing  Medical  School,  and  a  recently  revived  but 
meagrely  attended  Law  Department.  The  Law  School  was 
founded  in  1789,  the  University  being  the  first  among  sur- 
viving American  universities  to  give  regular  instruction  in  law. 
Its  first  professor  was  the  Honorable  James  Wilson,  whom 
Washington  appointed  an  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  ( 1 789- 1 798) .  The  departments  were  under  one  Board 
of  Trustees,  but  otherwise  stood  in  no  academic  relation. 
The  Provost  conferred  all  degrees,  which  was  about  the  only 
university  function  he  performed.  The  Freshman  class  in 
1858  numbered  thirty-two. 

There  were  six  professors  in  the  Department  of  Arts,  in 
which  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  students  were  enrolled; 
ten  professors  and  four  hundred  and  nine  students  in  the 
Medical  School;  three  professors  and  seventy-five  students 
in  the  Law  School,  and  four  professors  and  thirteen  students 
in  the  Department  of  Mines,  Arts,  and  Manufactures.  In 
the  Charity  Schools  were  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  students 
and  four  teachers,  two  of  whom  were  women.^  There  was 
also  an  academical  department,  consisting  of  a  principal  and 
thirty-six  students,  under  the  control  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 


^  The  University  stood  on  this  site  from  1829  to  1874.  A 
picture  of  the  College  building  may  be  found  in  an  article  on  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  in  Harper's  Magazine  for  July,  1894. 

^  The  Charity  Schools  were  located  on  Fourth  Street,  below 
Mulberry.  The  older  of  the  buildings  was  originally  constructed 
in  1742— 1743,  to  accommodate  the  great  preacher  and  evangelist, 
George  Whitefield.  For  a  picture  of  these  schools  see  the  article 
above  referred  to. 

27 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1858 

but  it  did  not  prepare  especially  for  the  University.    Indeed, 
few  of  its  students  ever  entered  college. 

William  Pepper's  first  class  hour,  so  it  happened,  was  with 
the  Professor  of  Greek,  the  learned  George  Allen,  whose 
earnest  words  of  advice  to  the  boys  that  morning  were  long 
remembered.  Speaking  of  the  daily  chapel  hour,  he  told  the 
class  that  the  University  had  no  desire  to  control  the  religious 
sentiments  of  its  students,  but  that  it  insisted  upon  their 
being  gentlemen.  As  from  its  foundation  it  had  observed 
brief  daily  religious  services,  in  which  some,  at  least,  were 
interested,  it  would  exact  from  all  students  the  courtesy  due 
the  occasion.  He  impressed  upon  them  that  each  professor's 
lecture-room  had  the  sanctity  of  a  drawing-room  at  home, 
and  that  nothing  could  be  tolerated  in  the  one  which  would 
be  improper  in  the  other. 

The  address  made  a  strong  impression  on  the  boys,  chiefly 
because  of  Professor  Allen's  manner  and  the  atmosphere  of 
character  which  surrounded  him.  That  speeches  of  this  kind 
to  freshmen  are  seldom  heard  in  our  day  is  due  not  so  much 
to  their  inappropriateness,  for  freshmen  are  freshmen  still,  but 
because  the  boys  in  the  entering  classes  are  now,  on  an  aver- 
age, four  years  older  than  in  Pepper's  time,  and  the  introduc- 
tion and  encouragement  of  college  athletics  have  quite  re- 
moved the  cause  of  that  disorder  in  class-rooms  and  buildings 
and  on  the  campus  which  for  untold  years  disgraced  college 
life.  The  professors  in  the  Department  of  Arts  at  this  time 
were  Vethake,  Frazer,  Allen,  Coppee,  Kendall,  and  Jackson. 
There  were  professors  only  in  the  regular  course,  but  several 
private  teachers,  who  were  endorsed  by  the  University,  gave 
special  instruction  in  the  modern  languages  at  a  separate 
charge.  The  regular  annual  fee  for  the  college  course,  which 
was  divided  into  two  academic  terms,  was  sixty  dollars. 

28 


IEt.  15]  YOUTH 

The  institution  which  Pepper  entered  in  1858  differed 
greatly  from  that  which  he  raised  and  expanded  into  a  real 
university  during  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life.  The  cata- 
logue, a  pamphlet  of  some  forty-four  pages,  shows  that  the 
school  was  not  above  the  rank  of  many  high  schools  and 
seminaries  of  our  time.  During  his  Freshman  year  he  studied 
Xenophon  (Hellenics) ;  Greek  Epigrams ;  Herodotus ;  Ar- 
nold's Greek  Prose;  Selections  from  Livy,  from  Horace 
(Satires  and  Epistles),  and  from  Cicero  (the  Epistles);  Rhet- 
oric ;  Weber's  Outlines  of  History ;  Algebra ;  Geometry 
(Legendre),  and  Composition  and  Declamation.  The  library, 
according  to  the  catalogue,  was  "  open  daily  not  less  than 
two  hours,"  and  was  in  charge  of  the  Professor  of  Belles- 
Lettres  and  English  Language,  the  distinguished  Henry 
Coppee.  At  the  end  of  the  year  Pepper  stood  second  in 
his  class. 

The  total  enrolment  in  the  University  in  1858  was  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-six,  which  increased  to  eight  hundred 
and  eighty-nine  in  the  following  year.  The  Sophomore  class 
numbered  thirty-four.  Its  course  of  study  was  Thucydides 
(Sicilian  Expedition) ;  Euripides  (Medea) ;  Demosthenes 
(Philippics) ;  Selections  from  Tacitus ;  the  De  Senectute  or 
De  Officiis  of  Cicero;  Selections  from  the  Odes  of  Horace; 
Arnold's  Latin  Prose;  Coppee's  Rhetoric  and  Logic;  Plane 
and  Spherical  Geometry  (Legendre),  with  applications  to  sur- 
veying, navigation,  and  lectures  on  the  Elements  of  Mechanics 
and  Chemistry.     Pepper  attained  the  first  rank  in  the  class. 

During  his  Junior  year  the  University  enrolled  eight  hun- 
dred and  twenty-six  students,  of  whom  thirty  were  in  his 
class.  John  Welsh,  a  man  greatly  distinguished  in  the 
history  of  Philadelphia,  became  one  of  the  Trustees  about  this 
time.     Daniel  R.  Goodwin,  D.D.,  was  chosen  Provost,  and 

29 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1861       \ 

Dr.  William  Pepper  was  elected  Professor  of  the  Theory  and 
Practice  of  Medicine.  The  Juniors  studied  Intellectual 
Philosophy  (Hamilton's  Reid),  with  Professor  Vethake; 
Natural  Theology  and  Moral  Philosophy  (Whewell),  with 
the  Provost ;  the  general  doctrine  of  Equilibrium  and  Matter, 
of  Solids  and  Liquids,  Machinery,  Heat,  Steam  Engine, 
Sound,  and  Chemistry  (experimental  lectures),  with  Profes- 
sors Kendall  and  Rogers;  Euripides  (Medea),  Demosthenes 
(Philippics),  and  Theocritus,  with  Professor  Allen;  Juvenal 
(Selections),  Cicero  (De  Finibus  or  Tusculan  Disputations), 
Plautus,  or  Terence,  with  Professor  Jackson;  Analytical 
Geometry,  Conic  Sections,  Differential  Calculus,  and  Analyt- 
ical Mechanics,  with  Professors  Church  and  Kendall.  They 
heard  lectures  on  Modem  History,  wrote  compositions,  and 
spoke  declamations.  At  the  end  of  the  year  Pepper  had  the 
distinction  of  standing  highest  in  his  class. 

The  session  of  1861  opened  amidst  the  disturbing  events 
of  the  Civil  War.  Many  of  Pepper's  associates  in  the 
Junior  class  entered  the  army,  some  that  of  the  United 
States,  others  that  of  the  Confederacy.  The  Senior  class 
numbered  only  twenty-five.  It  continued  the  study  of  Moral 
Philosophy  and  took  up  Butler's  Analogy,  Bo  wen's  Political 
Economy;  read  some  of  the  Dialogues  of  Plato,  CEdipus 
Tyrannus,  the  Art  of  Poetry,  and  began  the  Integral  Calculus. 
There  were  lectures  on  Astronomy,  Light,  Electricity  and 
Magnetism,  Physical  Geography,  English  Literature,  Intema- 
tional  Law,  General  History,  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Some  of  the  class,  and  he  among  them, 
began  French,  a  language  which  in  later  life  he  spoke  fluently 
and  habitually  with  his  children.  All  students  were  required 
to  write  "  original  pieces "  and  to  deliver  declamations.  On 
Commencement    Day,    in    July,     1862,    William    Pepper 

30 


WILLIAM     PEPPER    ^T . 


JEt.  i8]  youth 

stood  second  in  rank  in  his  class  and  was  graduated  with 
distinction. 

One  of  his  classmates  ^  recalls  a  conversation  with  him  on 
the  College  campus  about  this  time.  They  were  talking  of 
the  University,  its  limitations  and  its  possibilities,  when  Pepper 
remarked,  "This  can  never  be  a  real  university  until  it  has  a 
Chancellor  as  its  actual  head,"  an  observation  of  more  than 
passing  interest  in  the  light  of  its  prophetic  character.  The 
institution  never  assumed  the  proportions  of  a  University 
until  William  Pepper  became  its  head,  stipulating  as  one 
of  the  conditions  of  his  accepting  the  Provostship  that  the 
statutes  should  be  so  changed  as  to  make  the  Provost  a 
member,  and  ex-qfficio  President,  of  each  Faculty.  The  fellow- 
student  to  whom  he  spoke  became  his  official  assistant  in  the 
administration  which  so  fully  developed  the  University  idea. 

Pepper's  valedictory  and  two  other  orations,  one  delivered 
while  a  Junior,  the  other  while  a  Senior,  are  preserved.  The 
first,  on  "The  Choice  of  a  Profession,"  is  written  with 
greater  precision  and  care  than  is  customary  among  Juniors. 
Professor  Coppee's  corrections  are  few  and  for  the  most  part 
verbal.  The  Senior  oration  on  "Symbolism"  abounds  in 
poetic  quotations  and  figures  of  speech.  It  is  somewhat 
fastidiously  written,  and  its  sheets  are  fastened  together  with  a 
faded  blue  silk  ribbon.  Both  in  thought  and  style  it  shows 
advance  over  the  earlier  attempt.  But  neither  of  these  boyish 
efforts  gives  any  hint  of  the  man  other  than  by  accuracy  of 
detail,  neatness  of  script,  and  an  orderly  arrangement  of 
paragraphs. 

The  "verbose"  valedictory,  spoken  on  July  3,  1862,  was 
the  traditional  polite  farewell  to  the  audience,  to  the  Trustees 


'  Rev.  Jesse  Y.  Burk,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  1888-. 

31 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1861 

of  the  College,  and  to  the  graduating  class,  a  piece  of  work 
which  Pepper  could  do  very  well.  At  the  age  when  most 
boys  are  awkward  and  easily  embarrassed,  he  had  elegant 
manners  and  almost  complete  self-control.  Those  who  re- 
member the  occasion  recall  the  grace  with  which  he  delivered 
the  valedictory,  and  its  happy  effect.  It  was  full  of  those  airy 
nothings  of  which  valedictories  are  composed  and  neatly  met 
the  requirements  of  the  hour.  The  Senior  oration,  on  "  Sym- 
bolism," was  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  annual  Senior 
declamations,  in  the  College  Hall,  December  23,  1861,  and 
the  occasion  was  memorable  as  the  last  of  its  kind.  The 
custom  had  been  observed  for  many  years,  but  at  last,  having 
become  an  opportunity  for  much  disorder  among  the  students, 
the  Faculty  decided  to  discontinue  it.  It  is  presumable  that 
Pepper's  orations  in  matter  and  style  were  not  above  the 
average  prepared  by  others  in  the  class.  They  are  of  the  kind 
that  are  heard  at  high-school  exhibitions. 

On  the  third  floor  of  the  College  building  rooms  were 
assigned  to  the  two  literary  societies — the  Philomathean,  in- 
stituted in  1813,  and  the  Zelosophic,  organized  in  1829. 
Each  had  an  ample  meeting-room  and  adjacent  quarters  for 
its  library.  Because  of  the  strong  rivalry  between  the  socie- 
ties, the  College  authorities  required  them  to  hold  their  meet- 
ings on  different  nights,  in  order  to  lessen  the  probability  of 
collisions.  Pepper  was  a  member  of  the  Philomathean,^  and, 
though  not  especially  active  in  its  affairs,  bore  his  full  share  of 
its  literary  assignments  and  was  for  a  time  its  moderator.  In 
its  exercises  he  exhibited  many  of  the  qualities  as  speaker  and 
debater  which  were  conspicuous  in  his  later  life.     He  was 


'  For  a  brief  history  of  this  society  see   Benjamin  Franklin  and 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Chapter  XII. 

32 


^T.  1 8]  YOUTH 

cool,  collected,  and  courteous ;  his  voice  was  musical  and  his 
manner  pleasing.  One  act  of  disorder  is  remembered.  He 
was  particeps  criminis  in  a  destructive  raid  upon  the  Zelo- 
sophic  rooms  on  a  riotous  night  in  1859,  whereof  record  can 
be  found  in  the  books  of  either  society.  But  the  records 
ought  also  to  show  that  he  was  one  of  those  who  promptly 
voted  an  ample  apology  to  Zelo,  and  helped  to  make  full 
payment  of  its  bill  of  damages  when  the  excitement  was  over. 

He  entered  the  Medical  Department  in  1862,  at  which 
time  it  had  three  hundred  and  nineteen  of  the  six  hundred 
and  forty-two  students  in  the  University,  and  had  seven  of 
its  twenty-eight  Professors.  Among  these  were  his  father, 
who  held  the  chair  of  Theory  and  Practice  and  of  Clinical 
Medicine,  and  Joseph  Leidy,  Professor  of  Anatomy.  The 
attendance  had  greatly  fallen  off  on  account  of  the  war,  for 
upward  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  boys,  who  otherwise  would 
have  been  in  the  University,  were  with  the  armies  in  the  field. 
He  heard  lectures  on  the  Institutes  of  Medicine,  from  Samuel 
Jackson  ;  on  Obstetrics  and  the  Diseases  of  Women  and  Chil- 
dren, from  Hugh  L.  Hodge ;  on  Materia  Medica  and  Phar- 
macy, from  Joseph  Carson ;  on  Chemistry,  from  Robert  E. 
Rogers ;  on  Surgery,  from  Henry  H.  Smith ;  on  Theory  and 
Practice,  from  his  father  ;  and  on  Anatomy,  from  Leidy.  In 
his  second  year  (1863-1864)  the  University  attendance  had 
increased  forty,  and  the  Medical  Department  alone  then 
represented  twenty-eight  States  and  countries.  Francis  G. 
Smith  lectured  on  the  Institutes  of  Medicine,  R.  A.  F.  Pen- 
rose on  Obstetrics,  and  D.  Hayes  Agnew  was  Demonstrator 
of  Anatomy. 

The  attendance  continued  to  increase  during  Pepper's 
Senior  year,  and  aggregated  four  hundred  and  twenty-five 
students  in  the  Department  of  Medicine.  Professor  Pepper's 
3  33 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1864 

tailing  health  forbade  his  giving  lectures.  Alfred  Stiile  was 
appointed  temporarily  in  his  place,  and  soon  after  Professor 
Pepper's  death  was  elected  to  fill  his  chair.  The  choice  was 
in  every  way  a  happy  one  for  William  Pepper.  No  firmer 
friend  could  have  succeeded  to  the  chair,  and  the  friendship 
continued  through  life.  On  March  1 2,  1 864,  it  being  the  one 
hundred  and  fifteenth  session  of  the  Medical  School,  William 
Pepper  was  graduated  Doctor  of  Medicine.^ 

His  first  care  was  for  his  father,  who  was  now  rapidly  fail- 
ing. All  through  the  summer  the  young  physician  was  with 
his  parent,  who  died  in  his  arms,  October  1 5,  1 864. 

With  the  son's  entrance  upon  the  practice  of  medicine 
closed  an  important  chapter  of  his  life — the  period  of  prepara- 
tion. By  inheritance  he  came  to  notable  opportunities,  and 
he  neglected  none  of  them.  He  was  more  of  a  student 
during  his  medical  course  than  he  had  been  in  college.  As 
he  grew  older  he  awakened  to  some  recognition  of  his  powers, 
and  undoubtedly  his  father's  death,  entailing  upon  him,  as  it 
did,  new  responsibilities,  awoke  his  ambition.  The  modest 
college  course  which  he  had  pursued,  modest  as  compared 
with  the  multifarious  offerings  in  university  courses  at  the 
present  time,  contained  the  essentials  of  sound  learning.  It 
comprised  the  foundation  which  still  lies  at  the  base  of  higher 
education.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  William  Pepper  faced 
the  world  with  no  extraordinary  technical  equipment.  It  was 
the  man  himself  that  was  to  determine  his  future.  Broad  and 
notable  as  it  was  destined  to  be,  there  was  little,  outside  of  the 
qualities  of  the  man,  which  hinted  at  the  future.  What 
these  qualities  were,  how  they  were  to  strengthen  and 
develop,  and  to  what  consequences  they  led,  form  the  sub- 


'  His  thesis  was  entitled  "  Movement  of  the  Iris."     Pepper  MSS. 

34 


WILLIAM    PEPPER    (tHE    ELDER)     1808-I864 


^T.  2i]  YOUTH 

ject  of  the  story  of  his  life.  It  became  so  varied,  so  in- 
tense, so  cosmopohtan,  so  beneficent  to  the  community  in 
which  he  was  born,  that  it  can  best  be  told  by  narrating, 
first,  his  career  as  a  professional  man;  secondly,  as  an  edu- 
cator, and,  thirdly,  as  the  citizen  actively  engaged  in  pro- 
moting the  public  welfare. 

In  narrating  this  career,  much  will  be  said  of  honors  and 
of  offices,  but  the  chief  theme  is  of  services  rendered.  Sel- 
dom is  it  vouchsafed  to  any  man  to  accomplish  so  much  as 
William  Pepper  accomplished ;  and  he  died  yet  young  in 
years.  He  was  the  contemporary  of  many  distinguished 
physicians,  surgeons,  and  men  of  science  in  his  native  city, 
and  with  these  a  notable  company  of  men  of  affairs.  Yet 
among  them  all  he  moved  to  a  unique  fame.  In  any 
country,  in  any  age  the  civilization  of  which  made  a  great 
career  possible,  he  would  have  done  incomparable  service 
and  would  have  won  renown.  His  activity  leaped  the  con- 
fines of  his  chosen  profession,  yet  he  W2is,  facile  princeps  in  his 
profession.  His  love  of  exalted  service  had  a  touch  of  the 
sublime.  "  Here  stars,  here  woods,  here  hills,  here  animals, 
here  men  abound,  and  the  vast  tendencies  concur  of  a  new 
order.  If  only  the  men  are  employed  in  conspiring  with  the 
designs  of  the  ki'pirit  who  led  us  hither,  and  is  leading  us  still, 
we  shall  quickly  enough  advance  out  of  all  hearing  of  others' 
censures,  out  of  all  regrets  of  our  own,  into  a  new  and  more 
excellent  social  state  than  history  has  recorded." 


35 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1863 


II 

THE   HOSPITAL 

1863-1874 

IN  March,  1863,  nearly  a  year  before  William  Pepper 
was  graduated  in  medicine,  he  received  a  letter  from 
his  friend  Dr.  Edward  Rhoads,  of  the  class  of  '62, 
informing  him  of  a  vacancy  soon  to  occur  in  the  office  of 
apothecary  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  and  that  he  had 
mentioned  him  as  a  substitute  during  the  vacation  of  the 
intendant,  Dr.  John  Conrad.  Rhoads  had  filled  the  post 
during  the  summer  of  1 862,  and  had  found  its  duties  pleasant 
and  valuable.  "  After  examining  the  salient  points  of  Parrish's 
Practical  Pharmacy  and  manipulating  in  the  laboratory  twice 
a  week  for  two  or  three  months  last  spring,"  wrote  Rhoads, 
"  I  found  no  difficulty  in  discharging  the  duties  required,  and 
you  would  find  less  than  myself."^  This  appears  to  be  the 
first  "  call  "  which  William  Pepper  received.  He  responded 
to  it  with  alacrity,  and  served  in  the  temporary  appointment 
with  such  success  that  in  the  following  year,  soon  after  his 
graduation,  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  physicians  to  the 
Dispensary.^ 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  list  of  official  appoint- 
ments which  he  received  during  his  distinguished  career  as 
a  physician.      It  was  followed    by  his  election  as  resident 


'  Edward  Rhoads  to  William  Pepper,  Jr.,  March  16,  1863. 
'Caspar  Wistar  to  William  Pepper,  May  15,  1864. 

36 


JEt.  20]  THE    HOSPITAL 

physician  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,^  the  duties  of  which 
office  he  performed  so  acceptably  that  at  the  expiration  of 
his  term  the  managers  formally  extended  to  him  "  the  prac- 
tice of  the  House  and  the  use  of  the  Library."^ 

The  Faculty  of  the  Department  of  Arts  in  the  University 
appointed  him  to  deliver  the  master's  oration  at  Commence- 
ment in  1865",  and  conveyed  the  announcement,  through 
its  Secretary,  the  eminent  Professor  AUen.^  The  invitation 
greatly  pleased  Dr.  Pepper,  as  may  be  gathered  from  a  mar- 
ginal note  in  his  own  hand  on  Professor  Allen's  letter :  "  I 
had  typhus  at  this  time,  and  could  not  give  it ;  it  was  a  great 
disappointment,  for  I  felt  it  a  fine  chance."  This  is  a  little 
glimpse  into  the  character  of  the  man.  In  March,  1866,  the 
managers  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  appointed  him  pathol- 
ogist, and  in  January  following  assigned  him  a  room  in  the 
Picture  House,  on  Spruce  Street,  in  which  to  deliver  a  course 
of  lectures  on  pathological  anatomy. 

In  the  same  year  he  was  elected  physician  to  the  Lincoln 
Institution.*  About  the  same  time  the  Board  of  Guardians 
of  the  Poor  elected  him  visiting  physician  to  the  Philadelphia 
Hospital  (Blockley),^  an  appointment  which  called  forth  a 
letter  of  congratulation  from  one  of  the  most  eminent  physi- 
cians in  the  city.'  Later  he  was  elected  curator  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Hospital  in  place  of  Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew,  resigned.^ 

^  Wistar  Morris,  Secretary  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  to  Dr.  William 
Pepper,  Jr.,  March  27,  1865. 

*  Wistar  Morris,  Secretary,  to  Dr.  Pepper,  9th  month,  24,  1866. 
3  MS.  letter,  May  9,  1865. 

*  May  9,  Idem. 

°MS.  letter  from  Charles  T.  Miller,  Secretary,  May  14,  1867. 
*MS.  letter  from  Albert  H.  Smith,  May  14,  1867. 
^  MS.  letter  from  C.  T.  Miller,  Secretary,  October  21,  1867. 

37 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1868 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  prolonged  contest  for  the  ap- 
pointment, which  was  considered  one  of  the  most  desirable  of 
its  kind  in  the  city,  as  it  opened  up  a  wide  field  of  clinical 
study .^  While  curator  he  prepared  a  descriptive  catalogue  of 
the  pathological  specimens  in  the  museum  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital,  a  closely  printed  octavo  of  138  pages,  based 
on  an  earlier  catalogue  by  Dr.  Thomas  G.  Morton.  In 
April,  1868,  he  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians of  Philadelphia.^  These  minor  but,  for  a  young  phy- 
sician, highly  honorable  appointments  show  in  what  esteem 
he  was  held  and  to  what  extent  his  abilities  had  won  the 
confidence  of  the  public. 

His  next  appointment,  when  we  consider  its  ultimate  re- 
sults, was  more  important.  In  June,  1868,  Dr.  Rogers,  the 
Dean  of  the  Medical  Department  of  the  University,  wrote  him 
that  the  Faculty,  desiring  to  carry  out  their  plan  of  a  course 
of  instruction  to  be  given  during  September  and  October  for 
the  benefit  of  students  of  medicine  who  might  then  be  in  the 
city,  had  selected  him  as  the  lecturer  on  Morbid  Anatomy  at 
a  compensation  of  one  hundred  dollars.^  He  accepted  the 
appointment  and  entered  on  the  duties  of  medical  instructor 
in  the  University,  which,  as  time  proved,  were  to  continue 
without  interruption  just  thirty  years.  The  subject  of  Morbid 
Anatomy  attracted  him,  and  his  lectures  greatly  pleased  the 
Faculty,  who,  at  their  conclusion,  sent  him  some  compli- 
mentary resolutions.* 

^  MS.  letter  of  congratulation,  John  Ashhurst,  Jr.,  M.D.,  May 
14,  1867. 

'^  MS.  notice,  John  H.  Packard,  Secretary,  College  Chamber, 
April  I,  1868. 

3  MS.  letter  from  Dr.  R.  E.  Rogers,  June  16,  1868. 

*  MS.  letter  from  Dr.  Rogers,  February  2,  1869. 

38 


/Et.  25]  THE    HOSPITAL 

The  success  of  the  course  and  Dr.  Pepper's  zeal  to  be  busy 
led  him  to  offer  another  course  in  Pathological  Anatomy, 
which  the  Faculty  gladly  accepted,  and  which  he  gave  in  the 
spring  of  1869,  but  his  offer  was  accepted  on  condition  that 
he  would  become  curator  for  the  time  being  of  the  patho- 
logical collection  made  by  Dr.  Horner  and  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  centuries.  Dr.  Pepper  received  no  compensation 
for  his  services  and  gave  up  the  lectures  in  1870.  The 
Wistar  and  Horner  collection  became  the  nucleus  of  the 
magnificent  museum  founded  twenty-five  years  later  by  Gen- 
eral Isaac  J.  Wistar,  who  was  largely  influenced  in  his  plans 
by  Dr.  Pepper.^  About  the  time  he  gave  up  the  patholog- 
ical lectures  at  the  University  he  was  appointed  curator  to 
the  Philadelphia  Hospital,  at  a  salary  of  three  hundred  a 
year,'^  and  shortly  afterward  was  chosen  one  of  the  attending 
physicians  of  the  Children's  Hospital,^  lecturer  on  medical 
subjects  at  the  Mission  House,  and  a  life  member  of  the 
Society  of  the  Lincoln  Institution.'^  One  of  his  colleagues 
at  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  in  1866-68,  remarking  on  Dr. 
Pepper's  characteristics  during  these  early  years,  recalls  "  his 
cheerful,  hopeful  disposition,  his  enthusiasm  and  his  alertness," 
and  particularly  his  "  bounding  up  and  down  stairs,  two  and 
three  steps  at  a  time,  to  and  from  his  clinics."  ^ 

^  See  account  of  the  Wistar  Institute,  post. 

^MS.  letter  from  C.  T.  Miller,  Secretary,  November  23,  1869; 
appointment  from  January  i,  1870. 

^MS.  letter  from  Dr.  F.  W.  Lewis,  Secretary,  March  4,  1870. 

*  January  15,  1869. 

®  Memoir  of  the  late  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  by  James 
Tyson.  Read  before  the  College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia, 
April  3,  1 90 1. 

39 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1870 

He  had  now  been  six  years  a  practising  physician,  and  had 
acquired  much  clinical  experience  in  his  varied  hospital  prac- 
tice. He  had  no  predilection  for  surgery,  and  he  was  fully 
conscious  of  his  inborn  powers  in  diagnosis  and  the  treatment 
of  the  sick.  He  was  gratified,  therefore,  in  April,  1870,  to 
receive  from  the  Dean  of  the  Medical  Faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity notice  of  his  appointment  as  lecturer  on  Clinical 
Medicine,^  at  four  hundred  per  annum,  the  appointment  to 
be  from  year  to  year  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Faculty.  His  ap- 
pointment to  the  lectureship  in  Clinical  Medicine  called  forth 
the  following  letter  from  his  friend,  the  eminent  Dr.  Gross : 

"  The  announcement  of  your  election  to  the  chair  of  Clinical 
Medicine  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  has  just  met  my  eye. 
Allow  me  to  congratulate  you,  with  all  my  heart  and  soul,  upon  an 
event  in  Philadelphia  progress  alike  honorable  to  yourself  and  worthy 
of  the  great  mother  of  American  medical  schools.  If  you  were  my 
own  son  I  could  hardly  be  more  rejoiced  than  I  am  at  the  occur- 
rence. You  have  before  you  an  empire  of  fame,  and  no  higher 
compliment  was  ever  bestowed  upon  so  young  a  physician  on  this 
continent.  That  you  may  live  long  to  enjoy  your  position  as  a 
teacher  in  a  great  school,  and  to  advance  the  interests  of  medical 
science  and  of  medical  education  is,  my  dear  Doctor,  the  sincere 
and  ardent  wish  of  your  friend."  ^ 

A  few  months  later  he  received  from  the  distinguished 
J.  P.  Leslie,  then  Secretary  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  notice  of  his  election  as  a  member.^ 


^  MS.  letter  from  Alfred  Stille',  J.  Carson,  Francis  G.  Smith,  Jr., 
April  19,  1870.  MS.  letter  from  R.  E.  Rogers,  Dean,  April  25, 
1870. 

*MS.  letter  from  S.  D.  Gross,  April  28,  1870. 

'July  i5>  1870. 

40 


JEt.  27]  THE    HOSPITAL 

In  February,  1870,  he  became  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  University. 
About  this  time  he  and  his  friends  were  discussing  the 
founding  of  a  new  medical  journal,  and  he  was  placed  on  the 
executive  committee  to  consider  the  matter.  In  March  he 
resigned  from  the  Lincoln  Institution  and  also  from  the 
Union  Home,  or  Mission,  in  which  he  had  been  giving 
some  informal  medical  instruction.  During  the  summer  the 
medical  journal  had  been  started  and  Dr.  Rhoads  had  been 
chosen  its  editor,  but  owing  to  Rhoads's  illness  Dr.  Pepper 
assumed  its  editorship  in  the  middle  of  August.  On  the  first  of 
October  he  resigned  the  position  of  pathologist  and  curator  to 
the  Pennsylvania  Hospital.  On  the  fifteenth  he  was  elected 
Vice-President  of  the  Philadelphia  Pathological  Society,  and 
three  years  later  its  President. 

In  January,  1871,  he  assisted  in  securing  the  election  of 
his  brother.  Dr.  George  Pepper,  as  physician  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Hospital,  and  he  was  instrumental  in  improving  the  ser- 
vice of  the  hospital  wardens.  In  February  he  was  appointed 
to  deliver  lectures  on  Physical  Diagnosis  at  the  University  in 
the  place  of  Dr.  Rhoads,  who  was  ill ;  he  gave  them  in  addi- 
tion to  his  own  clinical  lectures  and  began  them  on  the 
twentieth  of  March.  A  few  days  before  these  additional  lec- 
tures opened  he  resigned  his  position  as  editor  of  the  Medical 
Times.  He  resigned  as  curator  to  Blockley  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  March,  and  on  the  seventeenth  of  June  went  to  Europe, 
returning  on  the  sixth  of  September.  He  spent  the  summer 
in  visiting  the  most  famous  hospitals  and  acquainting  him- 
self with  their  construction,  organization,  and  management. 

At  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  clinical  lecturer,  the 
subject  of  removing  the  University  to  West  Philadelphia  was 
first  agitated.     A  most  serious  obstacle  was  the  inconvenience 

41 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1870 

of  the  prospective  location,  as  the  hospitals  were  all  located  in 
the  eastern  and  older  part  of  the  city  ;  but  that  the  removal  of 
the  institution  to  more  convenient  quarters  was  imperatively 
necessary  and  could  not  be  much  longer  delayed  was  now 
fully  recognized.  Many  of  the  Medical  Faculty  were  opposed 
to  the  change,  but  the  younger  members,  especially  those  who, 
like  Dr.  Pepper,  were  delivering  their  maiden  lectures  in  the  in- 
stitution, were  anxious  to  effect  the  removal.  The  old  quar- 
ters were  antiquated ;  new  ones  could  be  made  modern  in 
every  respect.  A  serious,  perhaps  the  most  serious,  difficulty 
in  the  way  could  be  overcome  by  the  erection  ot  a  Univer- 
sity Hospital  on  the  new  site.  At  this  time  no  great  hos- 
pital in  America  was  so  affiliated  with  a  medical  school  as 
to  be  identified  with  the  school.  A  hospital  was  a  munic- 
ipal, a  county,  or  a  private  institution,  its  privileges  open 
freely  to  its  own  officials,  but  not  exclusively  to  the  students 
of  a  particular  medical  school,  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  It  was  a  departure  from  prece- 
dent for  any  one  to  advocate  the  founding  of  a  great  hospital 
primarily  for  the  benefit  of  the  public,  and,  also,  of  the 
medical  students  attending  a  university. 

A  hint  of  impending  reforms  and  of  many  innovations  was 
given  by  Dr.  Pepper,  now  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  in  his 
address  to  the  Alumni  of  the  University  at  their  annual 
dinner,  December  30,  1870,  in  response  to  the  toast,  "The 
Medical  Department."  He  mentioned,  with  regret,  that  the 
different  branches  of  the  University  were  still  subjected  to 
very  different  influences  and  dependent  upon  very  diflferent 
sources  of  support.  The  students  in  the  Department  of 
Arts  were  drawn  chiefly  from  Philadelphia;  those  of  the 
Medical  Department  came  from  many  States  and  countries. 
He  earnestly  advocated  the  co-operation  of  all  the  Alumni  of 

42 


JEt.  27]  THE    HOSPITAL 

the  institution.  He  regretted  that  American  medical  schools 
did  not  provide  the  opportunities  for  scientific  education  to 
be  found  in  the  medical  schools  of  Europe.  The  most 
serious  defect  in  our  schools  was  the  lack  of  thorough  clin- 
ical instruction  in  the  numerous  special  branches  into 
which  the  art  of  inedicine  had  already  been  separated.  The 
Faculty  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  clearly  recog- 
nizing the  great  want,  made  the  more  serious  by  the  absence 
of  any  hospital  in  immediate  connection  with  the  school,  had 
organized  during  1869—70  what  might  be  claimed  as  "the 
best  and  most  complete  system  of  dispensary  clinical  teaching 
in  connection  with  any  medical  school."  It  was  evident,  he 
said,  that  as  soon  as  the  college  was  removed  from  its  old 
site  at  Ninth  and  Chestnut  Streets  there  would  arise  a  ques- 
tion of  the  gravest  importance  as  to  the  future  of  the  Med- 
ical Department ;  and  this  he  said  referring  to  the  need  of  a 
hospital. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  who  first  proposed  this  hospital.  At 
the  medical  commencement  in  1871,  among  the  physicians 
present  were  Dr.  William  F.  Norris,  of  the  Class  of  '61, 
Dr.  Horatio  C.  Wood,  of  the  Class  of  '62,  and  Dr.  Pepper. 
The  programme  of  the  day  gives  no  hint  that  the  erection  of 
a  hospital  was  under  discussion  at  the  time  ;  but  it  is  known 
that  on  this  occasion  the  subject  was  thoughtfully  considered 
and  that  the  idea  of  establishing  the  University  Hospital 
was  born.  By  March  1 5  a  special  committee  was  at  work. 
On  June  12  a  meeting  of  this  committee  of  collection,  with 
the  Honorable  Morton  McMichael  as  chairman,  was  held 
in  the  Academic  Department  of  the  University.^  Mr. 
McMichael   was,   at   the   time,  the    owner   and   editor    of 


^  Printed  memorandum. 
43 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1871 

the  North  American,  the  oldest  daily  newspaper  in  the 
country,  and  was  a  recognized  power  in  public  affairs.  His 
influence  for  the  new  movement  was  accounted  as  an  as- 
surance of  its  success.  The  committee  decided  that  the 
erection  of  a  hospital  should  be  urged  upon  the  Medical 
Faculty  and  the  Board  of  Trustees.  The  Faculty  quickly 
responded  to  the  wishes  of  the  Alumni  and  appointed  a 
committee  from  its  own  number  to  co-operate.  A  joint 
meeting  was  held  at  which  it  was  decided  to  interest  the 
influential  citizens  of  Philadelphia  and  to  issue  an  appeal 
to  the  public  for  funds.  The  signers  of  this  appeal  selected 
the  Hospital  finance  committee  to  carry  on  the  work. 
Saunders  Lewis  was  elected  treasurer,  William  F.  Norris, 
M.D.,  secretary,  and  Dr.  Pepper,  chairman. 

Dr.  Pepper,  at  this  time  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  took 
up  the  hospital  enterprise  with  enthusiasm.  First  he  wrote 
an  appeal  in  its  behalf,^  which  was  signed  by  one  hundred 
and  nine  prominent  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  among  them 
its  most  eminent  physicians,  lawyers,  and  business  men. 
The  purpose  of  the  appeal  was  to  show  the  necessity  of  a 
hospital  under  the  direction  of  the  University  as  an  addition 
to  its  resources.  During  the  year  1870  more  than  three 
thousand  persons  had  applied  for  relief  at  the  University 
alone.  All  conceded  that  increased  hospital  accommoda- 
tion was  needed  in  the  city.  The  site  selected  for  the  Uni- 
versity Hospital,  on  the  land  recently  acquired  for  the  Uni- 
versity in  West  Philadelphia,  was  particularly  favorable  from 
a  hygienic  stand-point,  and  possessed  the  advantage  of  being 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  termini  of  the  great  railroads  of  the 


'  An  Appeal  in  Behalf  of  a  Hospital  for  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania;  1 871,  pp.  4. 

44 


Mr.  28]  THE    HOSPITAL 

State.  It  was  estimated  that  between  1810  and  1870  no 
less  than  twenty  milHon  dollars  had  been  expended  in  Phila- 
delphia by  the  medical  students  of  the  University  alone,  so 
that  the  proposed  undertaking  was  justified  in  a  business 
way ;  by  adequately  equipping  the  University  Medical 
School  a  larger  number  of  students  would  be  in  attendance, 
and  a  greater  sum  of  money  annually  be  expended  in  the 
city.  The  Trustees  had  decided  to  devote  sufficient  property 
in  West  Philadelphia  to  the  use  of  the  building,  and  it  was 
proposed  to  equip  the  hospital  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
beds  and  to  maintain  it  in  order  and  efficiency.  To  this 
end  an  endowment  fund  would  be  required  of  at  least  seven 
hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  a  less  amount  might  be  made 
sufficient,  but  a  million  dollars  could  be  employed  without 
extravagance  and  with  inestimable  benefit  to  the  sick  and 
wounded,  not  only  of  the  community  but  of  the  great 
manufacturing  and  mining  districts  by  which  Philadelphia 
is  surrounded.  Therefore  the  appeal  for  the  hospital  was 
based  on  three  grounds :  first,  the  requirements  of  medical 
education ;  secondly,  the  increased  need  in  the  city  of  hos- 
pital accommodation,  and  thirdly,  the  material  advantage 
which  it  would  give  to  the  community. 

With  characteristic  thoroughness,  Dr.  Pepper  collected 
data  to  show  the  hospital  accommodation  of  the  city  as 
compared  with  that  of  New  York,  and  also  to  show  the 
relative  need  of  such  accommodation  as  evidenced  by  the 
population  of  the  two  cities  and  its  rate  of  relative  increase. 
The  result  of  his  investigation  showed  that  Philadelphia, 
with  a  population  of  seven  hundred  thousand  souls  (674,022), 
afforded  only  three  hundred  and  nine  free  hospital  beds  to 
which  the  honest  poor  could  resort  in  time  of  sickness.  It 
was  true  there  were  fourteen  hospitals  in  the  city  offering 

45 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1871 

one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-two  beds,  of  which 
one  thousand  one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  were  nominally 
free,  but  against  this  number  he  contrasted  the  accommoda- 
tion in  New  York  city  with  a  population  of  nine  hundred 
and  twenty-six  thousand  (926,341),  with  thirty  hospitals 
affording  seven  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty  beds,  of 
which  six  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  were  free. 

The  contrast  was  the  more  startling  upon  comparing  the 
population  of  the  two  Commonwealths.  That  of  Penn- 
sylvania, by  the  census  of  1870,  was  three  and  a  half  mil- 
lion, but  excluding  Philadelphia  two  million  eight  hundred 
thousand.  The  population  of  New  York  was  four  and  one- 
third  million,  but  excluding  that  of  the  City  of  New  York 
three  million  four  hundred  thousand.  The  rate  of  increase 
was  greater  for  Pennsylvania ;  indeed,  between  1 860  and 
1870  the  city  of  Philadelphia  alone  had  increased  nearly 
as  much  in  population  as  the  entire  State  of  New  York,  and 
the  total  increase  of  Pennsylvania  during  this  decade  was 
over  one  hundred  thousand  greater  than  that  of  the  City  of 
New  York. 

By  the  most  liberal  interpretation  of  hospital  rules  there 
were  no  more  than  eleven  hundred  free  beds  in  all  Philadel- 
phia hospitals  at  this  time.  This  fact  was  the  more  re- 
markable when  it  was  remembered  that  Philadelphia  was 
the  principal  manufacturing  centre  in  the  Union,  and  at  this 
time  the  capital  invested  in  its  manufactories  amounted  to 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  There 
had  been  no  remarkable  extension  of  hospital  privileges  in 
the  city  since  1840,  yet  since  that  time  the  railroad  interests 
of  the  city  had  developed  and  had  greatly  increased  the 
number  of  persons  requiring  hospital  service.  At  the  same 
time,  the  mining  interests  of  the  State  had  developed,  yet 

46 


JEt.  28]  THE    HOSPITAL 

without  adequate  provision  for  accidents.  While  in  New 
York  city  there  were  over  six  thousand  free  hospital  beds 
for  a  population  of  nine  hundred  thousand,  in  Philadelphia, 
the  principal  city  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  whose  wealth 
was  nearly  four  billions  of  dollars,  there  was  only  one  free 
hospital  bed  for  every  seven  thousand  of  the  population. 

Dr.  Pepper  did  not  stop  merely  with  an  appeal  to  the 
citizens  of  Philadelphia ;  he  inaugurated  a  campaign  to  in- 
fluence the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania.  In  his  petition  of 
December,  1871,  to  the  Legislature  he  embodied  the  facts 
which  he  had  collected  for  his  general  appeal.  He  stated 
the  amount  of  the  endowment  fund  which  would  be  re- 
quired at  seven  hundred  thousand,  but  extended  the  service 
of  the  proposed  hospital  so  as  to  cover  the  entire  Common- 
wealth. At  least  a  quarter  of  a  million  should  be  secured 
before  the  first  portion  of  the  hospital  could  be  erected  to 
be  ready  for  the  reception  of  patients.  In  the  early  seventies 
the  State  Legislature  had  not  been  overrun  by  appellants 
for  aid  to  hospitals ;  hence  they  were  received  as  novelties 
of  their  kind.  The  public  treasury  had  been  exploited  for 
almost  every  conceivable  charity — except  a  university  hos- 
pital. Meanwhile,  the  appeal  to  Philadelphia  had  met  with 
a  generous  response  and  over  one  hundred  and  forty  thou- 
sand dollars  had  been  subscribed.  It  was  understood  that 
the  hospital  would  be  a  free  State  institution  and  would 
be  entirely  free  from  sectarian  influences.  The  site  pro- 
spectively chosen,  on  the  high  land  on  a  portion  of  the 
almshouse  property,  was  near  the  railroad  centre  of  the  city 
and  the  State.  The  institution  was  to  be  managed  by  busi- 
ness men  and  members  of  the  medical  profession.  The 
legislative  appeal  was  strengthened  by  the  success  which  had 
attended  the   movement  thus   far,   and  the  Assembly  was 

47 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1872 

reminded  of  the  generous  treatment  of  hospitals  by  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  York.  It  was  asked  to  appropriate 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  towards  the  erection  of  the 

hospital.^ 

The  appeal  to  the  Legislature  was  followed  by  a  campaign 
of  education,  in  which  the  person  of  widest  influence  was 
Mr.  John  Welsh.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  without  him 
the  undertaking  would  have  succeeded.  Every  medical 
alumnus  of  the  University  in  the  State  received  an  earnest 
appeal  from  the  Faculty  to  use  his  influence  with  the  Senator 
and  Representative  from  his  district  to  support  the  appro- 
priation. As  events  proved,  the  campaign  was  an  easy  one, 
for  the  hospital  appeal  was  a  novel  method  of  getting  an 
appropriation.  It  was  almost  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the 
history  of  the  State.  On  April  3,  1872,  the  Legislature 
passed  the  annual  appropriation  act,  one  section  of  which 
appropriated  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  upon  condition  that  it  should 
raise  the  additional  sum  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
The  entire  appropriation  was  to  be  expended  in  the  erection 
of  a  general  hospital  in  connection  with  the  University,  in 
which  at  least  two  hundred  beds,  free  for  persons  injured, 


^  The  original  appeal  to  the  Legislature  was  signed  by  John  Welsh, 
J.  Edgar  Thompson,  George  B.  Wood,  M.D.,  Thomas  A.  Scott, 
President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  Franklin  B.  Gowen,  of  the 
Reading  Railroad,  Henry  C.  Lea,  Edward  M.  Paxson,  Joseph  Alli- 
son, Thomas  K.  Finletter,  George  Sharswood,  Daniel  Agnew, 
H.  W.  Williams,  F.  Carroll  Brewster,  J.  N.  Campbell,  F.  Jordon, 
A.  L.  Russell,  J.  I.  Clark  Hare,  M.  Russell  Thayer,  James  Lynd, 
James  T.  Mitchell,  Amos  Briggs,  J.  G.  Fell,  R.  E.  Rogers,  M.D., 
James  Ludlow,  Ulysses  Mercer,  and  William  Pepper. 

48 


JEt.  29]  THE    HOSPITAL 

should  be  forever  maintained.  No  portion  of  the  State 
appropriation  was  to  be  available  until  satisfactory  evidence 
had  been  furnished  to  the  Auditor-General  and  State  Treas- 
urer that  the  required  subscription  of  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
thousand  dollars  had  been  secured  by  the  University.  In 
recognition  of  the  services  which  the  members  of  the  Legis- 
lature had  rendered  in  voting  the  appropriation,  the  finance 
committee  of  the  fund  for  establishing  the  hospital,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Dr.  Pepper,  caused  to  be  prepared  in  the  form 
of  a  certificate  a  resolution  of  thanks  for  the  assistance 
which  the  Legislature  had  given.  A  copy  signed  by  the 
committee  was  sent  to  each  member. 


HOSPITAL   OF  THE    UNIVERSITY  OF 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Philadelphia,  May  i,  1872. 

Dear  Sir  :  At  a  meeting  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the 
Fund  for  establishing  a  General  Hospital  in  connection  with  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  the  act  of  the  Legislature  appropriating 
;^  1 00,000  for  the  erection  of  this  proposed  hospital  was  read,  and 
on  motion  it  was  unanimously  resolved  : 

That,  whereas  we  regard  the  action  of  the  Legislature  in  making 
this  appropriation  as  worthy  alike  of  the  dignity  and  wealth  of  the 
Commonwealth  and  of  its  reputation  for  the  exercise  of  a  wise  and 
liberal  charity  in  support  of  institutions  destined  for  the  alleviation 
of  human  suffering. 

We,  the  undersigned,  being  among  the  very  numerous  citizens 
interested  in  this  noble  and  most  desirable  enterprise,  beg  to  convey 
to  you  our  appreciation  of  your  public-spirited  and  disinterested 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  above  appropriation ;  and  to  express  our 
conviction  that  you  have  thus  been  instrumental  in  securing  the 
successful  completion  of  an  institution  which  will  stand  for  centu- 
4  49 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1872 

ries  as  a  monument  of  the  broad  liberality  of  our  community,  and 
as  a  sheltering  haven  to  receive  thousands  of  needy  sufferers. 
Very  truly  yours, 

James  Thompson,  A.  L.  Russell, 

John  M.  Read,  Joseph  Allison, 

George  Sharswood,  Thos.  K.  Finletter, 

H.  W.  Williams,  Horatio  C.  Wood,  M.D., 

Daniel  Agnew,  F.  Carroll  Brewster, 

J.  M.  Campbell,  R.  E.  Rogers,  M.D., 

F.  Jordon,  Henry  C.  Gibson, 

Morton  McMichael,  Wm.  S.  Pierce, 

William  F.  Norris,  M.D.,  Edward  M.  Paxson, 

George  A.  Wood,  J.  I.  Clark  Hare, 

J.  Edgar  Thomson,  James  Lynd, 

Geo.  B.  Wood,  M.D.,  M.  Russell  Thayer, 

Thomas  A.  Scott,  James  T.  Mitchell, 

Franklin  B.  Gowen,  D.  Hayes  Agnew,  M.D., 

Henry  C.  Lea,  William  Pepper,  M.D. 
Theodore  Cuyler, 

About  a  month  before  the  Legislature  made  the  appropri- 
ation the  Trustees  of  the  University  designated  a  site  for  the 
hospital  on  their  recently  acquired  property  in  West  Phila- 
delphia. It  was  to  stand  on  the  north  side  of  Locust  Street, 
where  Houston  Hall  is  now  situated,  but  the  Trustees  agreed 
that  if  within  a  year  they  came  into  possession  of  more  suit- 
able ground  it  should  be  utilized  instead.^  The  Trustees 
acted  generously ;  for  the  campus,  then  only  ten  acres,  was 
already  too  small  for  University  purposes.  Dr.  Pepper  de- 
termined to  appeal  to  the  City  Council  for  a  new  site,  and  he 
promptly  drew  up  a  formal  petition,  in  which  he  embodied 


^  MS.  letter  from  Cadwalader  Biddle,  Secretary,  to  Dr.  Pepper, 
March  8,  1872. 

so 


JEt.  29]  THE    HOSPITAL 

all  the  essential  matter  utilized  in  his  earlier  petitions, 
strengthened  now  by  the  additional  facts  that  the  State  had 
appropriated  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  erection 
of  the  building,  and  that  "  munificent  individuals  and  wealthy 
corporations  had  already,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months, 
given  nearly  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars 
additional."  It  was  necessary,  he  urged,  that  "  a  hospital 
starting  under  such  favorable  auspices  and  destined  to  grow 
with  the  increasing  requirements  of  the  community  should 
be  located  on  a  portion  of  ground  sufficiently  large  to  allow 
of  its  future  extension  from  time  to  time."  ^ 

As  it  was  impossible,  he  contended,  to  obtain  a  site  for  the 
building  adequate  to  its  needs  on  the  property  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  West  Philadelphia,  it  became  necessary  to  appeal 
to  the  municipal  government  for  a  grant  of  land  of  suitable 
extent.  Councils  were  therefore  petitioned  to  grant  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  University  the  square  of  ground  situated  in 
West  Philadelphia  bounded  by  Spruce  Street  on  the  north, 
by  Pine  Street  on  the  south,  by  Thirty-fourth  Street  on  the 
east,  and  by  Thirty-sixth  Street  on  the  west;  subject  to  the 
conditions  that  no  portion  of  the  ground  should  ever  be 
alienated  from  the  University,  and  that  its  Trustees  should 
agree  to  erect  and  forever  to  maintain  on  the  ground  a 
general  hospital  containing  at  least  fifty  free  beds.  This 
petition  was  signed  by  many  influential  citizens.^ 


^  Original  appeal  to  the  Select  and  Common  Councils  of  the  City 
of  Philadelphia. 

^  Among  them  were  George  B.  Wood,  M.D.,  Eli  K.  Price,  John 
Welsh,  William  Sellers,  N.  B.  Browne,  Morton  McMichael,  H.  C. 
Wood,  M.D.,  Theodore  Cuyler,  Thomas  A.  Scott,  Saunders  Lewis, 
William  F.  Norris,  M.D.,  D.  Hayes  Agnew,  M.D.,  R.  E.  Rogers, 

51 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1872 

It  is  necessary  only  to  glance  at  the  signatures  to  learn  the 
powerful  influence  behind  the  appeal ;  its  signers  represented  | 
the  controlling  forces  in  the  life  of  Philadelphia.  Its  recep- 
tion in  both  branches  of  Councils  was  cordial  and  in  marked 
contrast  to  that  which  had  been  given  to  the  request  of  the 
Trustees  a  few  years  earlier  for  a  sale  of  a  part  of  the  alms- 
house farm  as  a  University  site.  An  appropriation  ordinance 
was  soon  reported  by  the  finance  committee,  who  with  other 
members  of  the  Councils  formally  inspected  the  University 
buildings  erected  in  West  Philadelphia,  and  examined  the 
adjacent  property  with  reference  to  the  application  for  a  site 
for  the  new  hospital.^ 

Finally,  after  a  most  amicable  campaign,  Councils  passed 
an  ordinance,  which  was  approved  by  Mayor  William  S. 
Stokley  on  May  18,  1872,  authorizing  the  sale  and  con- 
veyance of  the  land  in  question  to  the  Trustees  of  the 
University  for  hospital  purposes.  The  consideration  was 
five  hundred  dollars  in  cash ;  the  erection  and  completion 
of  a  hospital  building  within  five  years  from  the  first  day  of 
July  following ;  the  perpetual  maintenance  in  the  hospital  of 
no  less  "  than  fifty  free  beds  for  the  use  of  the  poor  of  the 
city  requiring  hospital  treatment ;  and  the  annual  report  by 
the  Trustees  to  Councils  of  the  condition  of  the  institution." 
The  Trustees  were  never  to  alienate  the  land,  five  and  a  half 
acres  in  area,  which  was  thus  conveyed  to  them  in  trust.'^ 


Richard  Wood,  George  W.  Biddle,  William  B.  Mann,  and  William 
Pepper,  M.D.     Original  appeal,  MS.  and  circular. 

*  Invitation  of  John  Bardsley,  Chairman  of  the  Finance  Com- 
mittee, Thursday,  May  2,  1872.      MS. 

'For  the  Ordinance,  see  Dr.  Pepper's  Report  as  Provost,  1894, 

PP- 51-53- 

52 


JEt.  29]  THE    HOSPITAL 

In  his  petition  to  Councils  for  a  hospital  site,  Dr.  Pepper 
had  spoken  of  "the  gifts  of  munificent  individuals  and 
wealthy  corporations,"  which  had  amounted  in  the  course 
of  a  few  months  to  nearly  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars.  Probably  since  the  days  of  the  great 
Sanitary  Fair  in  Philadelphia  so  large  a  sum  had  not  been 
raised  in  the  city  in  so  brief  a  time,  and  the  gifts  were  with 
few  exceptions  in  response  to  Dr.  Pepper's  personal  solicita- 
tion. He  wrote  innumerable  letters  and  made  innumerable 
calls.  Some  of  these  letters  are  in  existence.  Those  to  the 
officials  of  wealthy  corporations,  such  as  the  great  railroads, 
emphasized  the  advantage  which  the  proposed  hospital  would 
be  to  the  employees  of  the  roads.^  With  individuals  he 
emphasized  the  general  need  of  a  hospital  and  appealed  to 
their  sympathies. 

Knowing  that  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  members  of 
the  legal  profession  are  frequently  called  upon  to  offer  sug- 
gestions to  persons  who  are  about  to  make  disposition  of 
their  property,  he  issued  a  special  appeal  to  the  lawyers  No- 
vember 1 ,  1 872,  in  behalf  of  the  hospital.  Five  thousand 
dollars,  he  said,  would  endow  a  free  bed  which  would  be 
known  by  the  donor's  name,  and  would  give  relief  on  an 
average  to  twelve  persons  yearly.  "  There  is  evidence,"  so 
the  appeal  concluded,  "  that  in  no  other  way  can  the  same 
amount  of  good  be  done  by  the  same  sum  of  money,"  ^  and 
a  copy  of  the  appeal  containing  a  form  of  bequest  of  per- 
sonal and  of  real  property  was  sent  to  the  lawyers  of  Penn- 


^  MS.  letter  to  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  Rail- 
road (n.  d.). 

*  Circular,  November  i,  1872,  signed  William  Pepper,  Chairman 
of  Finance  Committee,  3  pp. 

53 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1872 

sylvania  and  the  neighboring  States.  While  it  is  difficult  to 
measure  the  immediate  response  to  this  appeal,  it  is  worthy 
of  special  mention  as  indicative  of  the  completeness  of 
Dr.  Pepper's  method  in  his  public  work.  As  the  years  pass 
the  hospital  is  remembered  in  many  wills  for  the  purpose 
which  his  appeal  emphasized. 

At  this  time  there  was  a  rumor  that  Edwin  Forrest,  the 
distinguished  actor,  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  was  contem- 
plating the  endowment  of  some  public  charity,  and  Dr. 
Pepper  addressed  an  eloquent  letter  to  him  urging  the 
claims  of  the  hospital  ;^  but  Mr.  Forrest  had  already  decided 
to  endow  a  Home  for  Actors,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  he 
gave  any  money  to  the  hospital.  The  railroads  responded 
generously,  as  did  nearly  every  individual  whom  Dr.  Pepper 
approached.  Large  donations  were  not  expected  from  any 
source,  for  Philadelphia  had  not  yet  become  acquainted  with 
Pepper's  plans  for  municipal  improvement,  nor  can  it  be  said 
that  these  plans  were  then  much  more  than  undeveloped 
hopes  within  himself  Among  the  remarkable  men  of  the 
city  at  this  time  was  Isaiah  V.  Williamson,  reputed  to  be  the 
wealthiest  person  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  more  famed  for 
saving  money  than  for  giving  it  away,  and  no  one  imagined 
that  he  would  assist  in  the  hospital  movement.  But  his  great 
wealth  attracted  Dr.  Pepper,  who,  trusting  to  his  own  genius 
in  dealing  with  the  man,  obtained  an  interview  with  him  in 
his  office,  which  has  been  described  as  "  one  of  the  darkest 
little  rooms  in  one  of  the  narrowest  streets  of  Philadelphia." 
Mr.  Richard  Wood  has  given  an  account  of  this  interview : 
"  For  twenty  minutes  or  more  he  listened  in  silence  to  the  elo- 
quence the  occasion  drew  forth,  briefly  asked  two  pertinent 

^  MS.  letter  to  Edwin  Forrest,  Esq.  (n.  d.). 
54 


JEt.  29]  THE    HOSPITAL 

questions,  silently  listened  again  for  a  few  minutes  to  the 
replies,  said  he  would  think  the  matter  over,  and  closed  the 
interview."  ^ 

In  a  few  weeks  he  announced  his  decision  to  Dr.  Pepper : 
he  would  give  the  hospital  fifty  thousand  dollars.  This 
unexpected  contribution  at  a  critical  time  in  its  history 
seemed  also  to  mark  a  crisis  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Williamson, 
for  from  this  time  he  became  a  generous  supporter  of  many 
public  and  private  charities.  Eventually  the  hospital  re- 
ceived one  hundred  thousand  dollars  from  him,  and  the 
University  an  equal  sum,  and  he  left  his  vast  estate  as  a 
munificent  endowment  for  a  training  school  for  mechanics, 
now  a  flourishing  institution  at  Williamson  School,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Philadelphia.  Small  subscriptions  to  the 
hospital  were  undoubtedly  secured  the  more  easily  by  Dr. 
Pepper's  plan  for  their  payment  in  four  annual  instalments 
and  by  giving  an  opportunity  to  endow  hospital  beds  in  the 
name  of  the  donor,  at  five  thousand  dollars  apiece. 

Dr.  Pepper's  efforts  were  so  successful  that  by  Novem- 
ber 16,  1872,  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
upon  the  securing  of  which  the  State  appropriation  was  con- 
ditioned, had  been  raised.  Such  a  service  as  he  had  done 
was  without  precedent  in  the  city's  annals.  He  had  inau- 
gurated a  movement  of  vast  public  concern,  and  within 
a  year  and  a  half  had  secured  above  three  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  to  carry  it  to  a  successful  end. 
But  as  at  least  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  would  be 
absorbed  in  the  erection  of  the  building,  and  as,  by  the  terms 
of  the  appropriation  from  the  State,  the  hospital  authorities 
were  bound  to  receive  injured  persons  not  exceeding  two 


^  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  p.  345. 

55 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1873 

hundred  in  number  whenever  they  presented  themselves,  it 
was  evident  that  the  amount  remaining  for  an  endowment 
fund  was  wholly  inadequate,  and  it  was  determined  to  present 
a  petition  to  the  Legislature  for  a  further  grant  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  conditioned  upon  the  raising  of  one 
hundred  thousand  additional.  This  would  give  an  endow- 
ment of  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  To  make 
this  petition  the  more  effective,  the  judges  and  lawyers  of 
Philadelphia  and  influential  citizens  in  other  parts  of  the 
State  were  appealed  to  by  Dr.  Pepper  to  use  their  influence 
with  the  Legislature  to  secure  a  second  appropriation. 

In  his  second  petition  to  the  General  Assembly  he  recited 
the  progress  which  the  friends  of  the  hospital  had  made,  and 
particularly  the  response  of  the  public  to  the  appeal  for 
funds  and  of  the  City  Councils  by  a  grant  of  land  for  the 
hospital.  Accompanying  the  petition  were  copies  of  the 
architect's  plans  for  the  building.^ 

At  this  time,  the  winter  of  1872  and  '73,  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  Pennsylvania  was  in  session  at  Har- 
risburg,  but  soon  after  adjourned  to  meet  in  Philadelphia  on 
the  seventh  of  January.  Its  members  were  representative 
men  from  every  district  of  the  State,  and  Dr.  Pepper  was 
quick  to  seize  upon  the  opportunity  which  the  assembling 
of  such  a  body  afforded.  He  knew  that  if  he  could  in- 
terest the  members  of  the  Convention  in  the  hospital,  he 
could  influence,  through  them,  the  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture. To  this  end  he  prevailed  upon  the  Trustees  of  the 
University  to  extend  an  official  invitation  to  the  Legislature 


^  Petition  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  1873  {^^  ^^  ^^^  Hospital);  broad 
sheet. 

56 


^T.  29]  THE    HOSPITAL 

and  to  the  Convention  to  attend  a  reception  in  the  College 
Hall  and  to  inspect  the  University  on  February  8  and 
thus  to  become  personally  acquainted  with  its  usefulness 
and  to  see  the  wisdom  of  its  request  for  State  aid  in  its  new 
enterprise,  a  great  free  hospital.  The  Convention  delegates 
attended  almost  in  a  body ;  not  so  the  members  of  the 
Legislature.  But  the  gathering  at  the  University  was  repre- 
sentative and  included  many  eminent  citizens  of  the  State. 
Dr.  Pepper  received  the  visitors  and  conducted  them 
through  the  University  buildings.  He  particularly  directed 
their  attention  to  the  laboratories  and  to  the  facilities  for 
scientific  and  practical  education.  This  thoughtful  atten- 
tion by  the  Trustees  and  their  friends  to  the  members  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention,  on  the  day  immediately  follow- 
ing their  assembling  in  the  city,  made  a  highly  favorable 
impression  upon  them  and  greatly  helped  forward  the  hos- 
pital cause.  Several  addresses  were  delivered,  of  which  the 
most  notable  was  by  Dr.  Pepper, — an  earnest  appeal  for 
the  new  hospital.  Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew  presented  the 
opportunities  of  the  medical  school  and  emphasized  the 
gratuitous  service  to  all  citizens  of  the  State  which  the 
Faculty  could  render  in  the  new  hospital.  The  Honorable 
Thomas  Chalfant,  a  State  Senator,  responded  on  behalf  of 
the  Legislature.^ 

The  two  months  which  followed  were  months  of  ceaseless 
activity  and  effort  on  Dr.  Pepper's  part.  Finally,  on  April 
9,  the  appropriation  bill  was  passed  containing  a  grant  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  University  on  condi- 
tion that  it  raise  a  like  amount,  and  that  the  entire  State 
appropriation  should  be  expended  in  the  erection  of  a  hos- 


^  Philadelphia  Press ^  February  10,  1873. 
57 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1874-97 

pital  in  which  at  least  two  hundred  free  beds  should  forever 
be  maintained. 

This  aid  from  the  State  enabled  the  University  to  hasten 
forward  the  construction  of  the  hospital.  Dr.  Pepper  was 
made  chairman  of  the  building  committee  and  accepted  the 
duty  of  superintending  the  construction  of  the  building. 
The  records  show  that  he  gave  personal  attention  to  all  the 
practical  problems  which  arose.^  Through  his  ceaseless  ac- 
tivity the  conditional  one  hundred  thousand  was  raised,  and 
with  the  payment  of  the  second  State  appropriation  the  total 
amount  which  he  had  secured  aggregated  over  five  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars.^ 

The  opening  of  the  hospital,  June  4,  1874,  was  made  an 
occasion  of  public  interest.  Distinguished  citizens  were 
present  from  all  parts  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State,  Hon.  John  F.  Hartranft,  presided.  The 
oration '  was  delivered  by  Hon.  William  A.  Wallace,  who 


^  The  contracts  are  in  his  handwriting, — e.g.^  MS.  agreement 
between  John  Crompt  and  Dr.  Pepper  for  iron  and  stone  work  for 
University  Hospital,  May  19,  1873. 

2^552,042. 

•'See  the  address  and  copies  of  important  documents  in  the  early 
history  of  the  hospital,  including  a  list  of  the  subscribers  to  its  fund, 
in  "  An  Account  of  the  Inauguration  of  the  Hospital  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania ;"  containing  the  addresses  of  His  Excel- 
lency Governor  Hartranft  and  Hon.  William  A.  Wallace,  with  a 
description  of  the  plans  of  the  building  and  an  appeal  to  the  public 
by  William  Pepper,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Chairman  of  the  Finance  Com- 
mittee of  the  Board  of  Contributors  and  of  the  Building  Committee 
of  the  Hospital  Commission.  Published  by  order  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees.  Philadelphia:  Collins,  Printer,  705  Jayne  Street,  1874. 
41  pp. 

58 


^T.  31-54]  THE    HOSPITAL 

had  been  a  powerful  friend  of  the  new  enterprise  almost  from 
its  inception. 

The  hospital  was  now  no  longer  a  proposition  on  paper. 
Its  needs  speedily  became  numerous  and  pressing.  Its  man- 
agement was  soon  unable  to  meet  the  demands  put  upon  it, 
and  its  friends  decided  to  make  another  appeal  to  the  Legis- 
lature for  an  appropriation  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  to  build  the  east  wing,  on  condition  that 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  should  be  raised  as  an  endow- 
ment fund.  Dr.  Pepper  took  up  the  task  with  his  accustomed 
energy.  He  won  the  support  of  the  Board  of  Public  Char- 
ities.^ He  pushed  his  conquest  in  all  directions,  but  he  soon 
discovered  that  he  had  taught  rival  institutions  his  own  for- 
midable tactics.  The  Legislature  was  overwhelmed  by  such 
a  flood  of  petitions  that  it  was  impossible  to  respond  to  all 
without  bankrupting  the  treasury.  The  undertaking  failed, 
and  seventeen  years  passed  before  the  University  Hospital 
again  asked  the  State  for  aid. 

His  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  hospital  continued 
through  life.  It  was  manifested  by  his  professional  services 
and  wise  counsel  and  also  by  the  monetary  support  which 
he  was  instrumental  in  bringing  to  it.  In  1882  he  started 
a  movement  which  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  a 
department  for  patients  suffering  with  chronic  diseases.  He 
interested  Mr.  Henry  C.  Gibson  in  the  undertaking,  who 
became  so  fully  enlisted  in  it  that  he  constructed  an  addi- 
tional wing  to  the  hospital,  formally  opened  in  1883,  and 
known  as  the  Gibson  wing  for  chronic  diseases.  In  this  year 
Mr.  Henry  Seybert  bequeathed  the  sum  of  sixty  thousand 


'  MS.  letter  from  George  L.  Harrison  to  Dr.  Pepper,  December 
30,   1874. 

59 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1874-97 

dollars  to  the  hospital,  the  income  of  which,  by  Mr. 
Seybert's  will,  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
ward  in  connection  with  the  department  of  chronic  diseases, 
the  ward  "  to  be  named  and  designated  as  my  friend  Dr. 
William  Pepper  shall  desire  it."  When  the  hospital  move- 
ment was  started  Dr.  Pepper  contemplated  the  securing  of 
an  ultimate  endowment  fund  of  three-quarters  of  a  million. 
We  have  seen  how  nearly  he  accomplished  this  undertaking 
in  the  short  space  of  three  years.  By  the  year  1891  the  re- 
sponse of  the  public  to  the  needs  of  the  hospital  had  resulted 
in  its  accumulating  endowment  funds  in  excess  of  six  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  and  in  its  possessing  enough  property 
in  addition  to  make  the  total  value  of  site,  buildings,  and  en- 
dowment somewhat  over  one  million  dollars.  Dr.  Pepper 
had  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing,  in  1 897,  a  year  before  his 
death,  the  generous  accomplishment  of  the  hospital  plan 
which  he  had  projected  and  the  execution  of  which  he  had 
initiated  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  before. 


60 


^T.  27]     CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 


III 

MEDICAL  DIRECTOR  OF  THE   CENTENNIAL;  THE 
ADDRESS   ON   HIGHER   MEDICAL   EDUCATION 

1870-1880 

THE  labor  of  creating  the  hospital  and  securing 
adequate  funds  for  its  maintenance  was  enough  of 
a  task  quite  fully  to  occupy  an  ordinary  man,  but 
while  doing  this  Dr.  Pepper  was  active  in  his  profession 
and  attentive  to  social  duties.  He  gradually  relinquished 
the  minor  and  preliminary  offices  to  which  he  had  been 
chosen  as  a  young  physician,  in  order  to  give  his  time  fully 
to  his  practice.  Thus,  in  1870,  after  four  years'  service,  he 
resigned  as  curator  of  the  Pathological  Museum  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospital.  "  While  of  the  hospital,  he  was  an 
enthusiastic  worker.  One  could  rarely  enter  his  room  with- 
out finding  him  peering  into  the  microscope  or  dissecting 
out  an  aneurism  or  some  other  morbid  product  of  the 
autopsy."^  It  was  while  serving  as  resident  physician  in 
this  hospital  that  he  and  his  colleague.  Dr.  Edward  Rhoads, 
assisted  Dr.  J.  Forsyth  Meigs  in  the  investigation  out  of 
which  grew  their  joint  paper  on  "  The  Morphological 
Changes  of  the  Blood  in  Malarial  Fever,"  ^  published  in 
1867,  but  prepared  a  year  or  more  earlier.     It  is  the  first 


^  James  Tyson,  M.D.,  Address  on  Behalf  of  the  Medical  Fac- 
ulty of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of  the  College  of 
Physicians,  November  29,  1898. 

^Pamphlet  (n.  d.),  46  pp. 

61 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1870 

contribution  of  great  value  with  which  Dr.  Pepper's  name 
is  connected.  Some  of  the  pigment  waves  which  this  con- 
tribution describes  were  possibly  malarial  parasites,  but  the 
authors  evidently  did  not  think  of  this.  The  phenomena 
chronicled  in  this  pamphlet  have  since  been  partially  ex- 
plained through  the  experiments  of  Pasteur. 

In  1870  he  became  Director  of  the  Biological  Section  of 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  also  a  member  of  sev- 
eral medical  societies,  of  which  the  principal  were  the  Obstet- 
rical Society  of  Philadelphia,  the  County  Medical  Society,^ 
the  State  Medical  Society,  and  the  American  Neurological 
Association.  In  all  these  he  was  active  and  occasionally  he 
delivered  a  formal  paper  on  some  professional  matter  occurring 
in  his  widening  practice.  His  lectures  on  Morbid  Anatomy, 
with  which  his  career  as  a  medical  teacher  had  opened,  were 
delivered  in  the  University  in  1868-1870,  and  were  published 
soon  after  their  close.  His  lectures  on  Clinical  Medicine, 
which  began  in  1870  and  continued  six  years,  were  reported 
and  published.^  He  also  gave  lectures  in  the  University  on 
Physical  Diagnosis,  which  work  seems  to  have  been  a  vol- 
untary service  on  his  part.  While  resident  physician  at  the 
hospital  and  serving  as  curator  and  pathologist  he  prepared 
a  catalogue  of  its  museum.  His  first  hospital  report  on  the 
"  Fluorescence  of  Tissues"  was  prepared  in  conjunction  with 
Dr.  Rhoads. 

His  earliest  paper  embodying  his  clinical  experience, 
entitled  "  Phosphorus  Poisoning  and  Fatty  Degeneration," 
appeared    in    the  American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences 


'January  19,  1870. 

^  Those  for  1873  ^^ere  reported  by  Dr.  Louis  Starr  and  printed 
in  the  Medical  and  Surgical  Reporter. 

62 


JEt.  27]     CENTENNIAL  MEDICAL  DIRECTOR 

(Hays's  Journal)  in  April,  1869,  and  was  followed  by  one 
on  "  Variola,"  in  October. 

In  association  with  Dr.  Meigs  he  wrote  the  treatise  on 
"  Diseases  of  Children,"  first  published  in  1870,  a  work  which 
passed  through  four  editions  during  the  next  ten  years.  It 
was  largely  his  own  revision  of  Meigs's  original  book,  and 
was  for  years  the  standard  text-book  on  the  subject.  In 
1883  he  read  a  Memoir  of  Dr.  Meigs  before  the  American 
Philosophical  Society.^  After  honoring  the  career  of  this 
distinguished  physician  and  medical  writer,  he  referred  to  his 
own  relations  with  him  as  joint  author  of  the  above  work  by 
which  Dr.  Meigs  is  best  known.  "  In  1869  he  requested  me 
to  associate  myself  with  him  in  the  task  of  bringing  the  work 
up  to  date,  and  the  fourth  edition,  which  appeared  in  1870, 
has  been  followed  by  three  others,  the  last  (the  eighth)  having 
been  published  in  1882.  The  estimation  in  which  this  has 
come  to  be  held  may  be  appreciated  from  the  language  of 
the  London  Lancet :  'It  is  a  work  of  nine  hundred  good 
American  pages  and  is  more  encyclopaedical  than  clinical. 
But  it  is  clinical,  and  withal  most  effectually  brought  up  to 
the  light,  pathological  and  therapeutical,  of  the  present  day. 
The  book  is  like  so  many  other  good  American  medical 
books  which  we  have  lately  had  occasion  to  notice ;  it  mar- 
velously  combines  a  resume  of  all  the  best  European  lectures 
and  practice,  with  evidence  throughout  of  good  personal 
judgment,  knowledge,  and  experience.  There  are  few  dis- 
eases of  children  which  it  does  not  treat  of  fully  and 
wisely.' "  The  Memoir  called  forth  a  note  from  one  well 
qualified  to  judge  of  its  worth  : 


^  October  19,  1883  ;  published  in  its  Transactions;  also  in  pam- 
phlet form,  14  pp. 

63 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1871 

"  Philadelphia,  November  zz,  1883. 

"  I  have  just  read  your  beautiful  Memoir  of  Dr.  J.  Forsyth  Meigs, 
and  I  can  say  from  my  own  personal  knowledge,  that  in  what  you 
have  spoken  in  high,  the  highest  terms,  there  is  not  a  word  of  excess 
in  the  praise  you  have  given  him.  The  Memoir  is  just  what  it 
should  be  in  tone  and  style  of  the  man  whose  virtues  it  records — 
simple,  earnest,  strikingly  touching  in  its  narrative  of  that  large  life 
of  unselfish  devotion  to  the  claims  of  suffering  humanity. 

"  As  a  patient  and  friend  of  Dr.  Meigs,  and  as  a  citizen  of  Phila- 
delphia, I  thank  you  cordially  for  this  beautiful  notice  of  one  of  the 
best  men  we  have  had  among  us. 

"  I  am,  faithfully  yours, 

"Geo.  W.  Biddle."^ 

In  the  same  year,  1870,  he  wrote  an  article  on  "Tra- 
cheotomy in  Chronic  Laryngitis,"  for  the  Philadelphia 
Medical  Times;  in  1871,^  for  the  same  periodical,  articles  on 
"Abdominal  Tumors,"^  "  Cystic  Disease  of  the  Pancreas,"* 
and  "Progressive  Muscular  Sclerosis;"^  for  the  American 
Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences^  71.  paper  on  "Trephining  in 
Cerebral  Disease"  '^  and  an  editorial  on  "  The  Board  of  Public 
Charities ;"  in  the  Medical  Times,  February  15,  1 87 1 ,  a  case 
of  "  Sclerosis  of  the  Legs  and  Feet,  with  Anesthesia  and 
Ataxia;"  and  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians, February  15,  1871,  a  case  of  "  Scirrhus  Pylori."'^ 


^  Dr.  Meigs  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Dr.  Arthur  V.  Meigs,  to 
secure  whose  election  Dr.  Pepper  used  his  influence.  See  Pepper's 
Memoir  of  John  Forsyth  Meigs,  p.  3,  and  MS.  letter  of  Dr.  John 
F.  Meigs  to  Dr.  Pepper,  November  25,  1881.     Pepper  MSS. 

^  February  15.  ^  Pamphlet,  12  pp. 

*  January  i.  ^  June  15,  July  i. 

^  Transactions  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  May  18,  18  70. 

^  Medical  Times^  May  I,  1871. 

64 


^T.  28]      CENTENNIAL  MEDICAL  DIRECTOR 

In  December,  1871,  he  began  the  preparation  of  an  essay  for 
the  Astley  Cooper  Prize  on  certain  affections  of  the  spinal 
cord,  but  the  pressure  of  his  hospital  work  and  the  serious 
illness  of  his  brother  George  compelled  him  to  abandon  it. 
In  the  October  numbers  of  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Times 
appeared  two  articles  ^  by  him  embodying  the  results  of  his 
visit  to  Europe.  In  the  same  periodical  for  1 872  ^  he  had  a 
paper  on  "  Emphysema  of  the  Neck,  associated  with  Lesion 
of  the  Lung." 

In  1872  his  friend  Dr.  Rhoads  died,  and  at  the  request  of 
the  College  of  Physicians  he  wrote  a  Memoir  of  him.  One 
passage  in  it  is  worthy  of  preservation,  both  as  indicative  of  his 
affection  for  Rhoads  and  as  a  prophecy  of  his  own  career : 

"  Thus  early  closed  the  life  of  one  so  rich  in  gifts,  both  of  mind 
and  character,  that  a  career  of  rare  usefulness  and  success  seemed 
certainly  to  await  him.  Measured  by  the  standard  of  those  achieve- 
ments which  win  the  world's  applause,  his  life  may  well  seem  im- 
perfect ;  measured  by  the  standard  of  those  acquirements  which 
increase  and  advance  human  knowledge,  it  may  well  seem  to  fall 
short ;  but  when  we  measure  it  by  a  far  higher  standard,  that  of  a 
consistent  conformity  to  the  highest  law  of  our  nature,  and  of  uni- 
form devotion  to  the  noblest  purposes,  it  cannot  fail  to  elicit  our 
admiration.  The  fame  awarded  by  the  world  is  mostly  given  only 
as  the  prize  of  great  achievements,  and  hence  it  must  always  follow 
that  comparatively  few  of  the  really  great  men  can  ever  receive 
full  recognition.  Where  one  is  afforded  ample  opportunities  for 
exerting  his  full  powers,  and  a  long  life  in  which  to  bring  his  work 
to  completion,  many  are  either  never  offered  the  suitable  occasion, 
or,  saddest  of  all,  are  stricken  down  in  the  midst  of  their  successful 
efforts  too  early  to  have  accomplished  aught  worthy  of  their  powers. 
The  opportunity  of  judging  rightly  of  such  lives,  where  capacities. 


^  October  i  and  15.  ^  July  i. 

5  65 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1872 

not  deeds,  are  to  guide  the  judgment,  must  always  be  limited  to  the 
comparatively  small  circle  of  each  one's  intimate  friends.  But  to 
these  the  true  fame  and  eminence  of  the  man  are  clear  and  estab- 
lished ;  they  feel  the  deep  truth  of  the  words 

'  The  greatest  gift  the  hero  leaves  his  race 
Is  to  have  been  a  hero,' 

and  ever  treasure  the  memory  of  that  apparently  fruitless  and  im- 
perfect life  as  a  proof  of  the  lofty  capacities  of  our  nature,  and  as 
an  undying  type  of  true  greatness."  ^ 

Twenty-six  years  afterward,  among  Dr.  Pepper's  papers 
was  found  a  bundle  of  letters  written  by  Rhoads  to  him 
between  the  years  1865  and  1872.  They  were  marked 
"  For  Preservation."  Though  faded  and  fragmentary,  they 
preserved  some  sign  of  the  tender  relations  which  had  ex- 
isted between  the  two  men  in  their  youth.  Dr.  Rhoads's 
vivid  descriptions,  in  these  letters,  of  his  life  in  London  while 
attending  lectures,  usually  concluded  with  a  comparison  in 
favor  of  the  medical  opportunities  of  Philadelphia.  Many 
years  after  Rhoads's  death  Dr.  Pepper  remarked  to  an  ac- 


^  Obituary  of  Edward  Rhoads,  M.D.,  read  before  the  College  of 
Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  February  5,  1872,  and  extracted  from 
its  Transactions.  By  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  Fellow  of  the  College. 
Philadelphia:   Collins,  Printer,  705  Jayne  Street.      1872. 

In  the  Memoir  of  his  friend.  Dr.  Pepper  quoted  these  lines  from 
Lycidas  : 

"  Fame  is  no  plant  that  grows  on  mortal  soil, 
Nor  in  the  glistering  foil 
Set  off  to  the  world,  nor  in  broad  rumor  lies  : 
But  lives  and  spreads  aloft  by  those  pure  eyes, 
And  perfect  witness  of  all-judging  Jove, 
As  he  pronounces  lastly  on  each  deed  ; 
of  so  much  fame  in  heaven  expect  thy  meed." 

66 


Mt.  29]      CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

quaintance  that  he  cherished  the  memory  of  his  early  friend 
as  one  of  the  inspirations  of  his  Hfe. 

The  relations  in  which  Dr.  Pepper  stood  to  his  fellows  at 
this  time  are  exemplified  by  two  letters  to  him : 

"  February  24,  187Z. 

"  My  dear  Sir  : 

"  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  very  kind  note  of  to-day's  date,  accom- 
panying the  valuable  works  on  '  Prisons  and  Lazarettos/  by  How- 
ard, of  which  you  ask  my  acceptance.  I  beg  to  answer  you  that 
it  is  very  grateful  to  me  to  possess  these  volumes  as  coming  from 
one  whose  intelligence  and  energy,  exerted  for  the  public  good  and 
in  the  cause  of  humanity,  have  been  so  conspicuous,  and  have  im- 
pressed my  own  mind  with  indelible  respect,  and  my  heart  with 
warm  esteem. 

"  For  myself,  your  praise  is  wholly  undeserved,  and  I  am  often 
shamed  by  the  more  valuable  efforts  of  others  in  the  works  which 
I  can  only  love  as  much  as  they. 

"  George  L.  Harrison."  ^ 

The  following  is  from  one  who  was  deeply  attached  to 
him  throughout  life. 

"  May  10,  1872. 

"  My  dear  Doctor  : 

"  A  few  weeks  ago  my  poor  boy  wrote  to  thank  you  for  welcome 
refreshment. 

"  Now  he  needs  no  more ;  but  if  in  spirit  he  is  conscious  of 
what  is  passing  here,  he  must  be  soothed  by  the  offering  you  laid 
upon  his  lifeless  brow,  and  which  seemed  to  typify  his  innocent  life, 
the  fragrance  and  flower  of  his  genius,  and  the  evanescent  nature 
of  his  earthly  ambition.  Let  me  thank  you  for  your  touching  trib- 
ute to  his  memory,  and  believe  me,  very  sincerely, 

"  Your  friend, 

"  Alfred  Stille."  ' 

1  MS.  letter.  »  y^^^  i^^^^^^ 

67 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1873 

The  articles  which  he  contributed  to  the  medical  journals 
were  usually  first  read  before  some  one  of  the  societies  to 
which  he  belonged,  and,  not  infrequently,  were  the  subjects 
of  debate  and  criticism.  His  activity  in  these  societies  con- 
tributed to  his  rapid  improvement  as  a  public  speaker,  and  he 
seems  to  have  utilized  the  meetings  as  he  would  have  utilized 
the  Master's  Oration — as  a  "  fine  chance."  To  him  nothing 
was  so  deplorable  as  the  loss  of  an  opportunity.  He  there- 
fore availed  himself  of  every  opportunity  to  advance  his  rank 
in  his  profession,  whether  by  addressing  one  of  the  many 
medical  societies  to  which  he  belonged  or  in  publishing  his 
clinical  lectures.^  The  medical  journal  which  he  had 
founded  received  his  lively  support,  and  scarcely  a  number 
appeared  during  1873,  1874  and  1875  which  did  not  contain 
an  article  by  him.^ 

In  October,  1874,  in  the  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences, 
he  published  an  article  on  the  "  Local  Treatment  of  Pul- 
monary Cavities  by  Injection  through  the  Chest  Wall,"  a 
piece  of  original  work  of  a  brilliant  sort.  A  year  later,  in 
the  same  journal,  he  published  an  article  on  "  Progressive 
Pernicious  Anaemia  or  Ansematosis,"  which  is  the  first 
account  in  medical  literature  of  the  involvement  of  the  bone- 
marrow  in  pernicious  anaemia,  which  term,  anaematosis,  was 


I 


*  E.g.^  Clinical  Lectures  on  a  Case  of  Hydrothorax  in  which 
Paracentesis  was  performed  :  Philadelphia  Medical  Times,  June  7 
and  14^  1873. 

^  Suggestions  for  Treatment  of  Collapse  in  Cholera  ;  and  Rupture 
of  the  Aortic  Valve  :  Philadelphia  Medical  Times,  June,  October, 
1873.  Local  Treatment  of  Tuberculosis  Cavities,  March,  1874; 
Chronic  Pericarditis,  September,  1874;  Operative  Treatment  of 
Pleural  Effusion,  July  4  and  11,  1875. 

68 


^T.  30]      CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

taken  up  by  the  profession  and  has  passed  into  use.^  Not 
long  afterward  an  eminent  ItaHan  physician  made  observa- 
tions of  a  similar  kind. 

In  1875  he  delivered  the  annual  address  before  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  Medical  Society,"  and  published  a  paper  of 
unusual  interest,  considering  his  recent  public  activities,  on 
the  "  Sanitary  Relations  of  Hospitals,"  which  he  had  read 
before  the  American  Public  Health  Association  at  its  annual 
meeting  in  Philadelphia,  November  10,  1874.  It  embodied 
the  scientific  data  which  he  had  gathered  from  multitudinous 
sources  at  home  and  abroad  since  his  first  thought,  in  1870, 
of  creating  a  University  Hospital.  In  the  same  year  his  re- 
marks on  "  Encysted  Dropsy  of  the  Abdomen,"  before  the 
College  of  Physicians,  were  published  in  its  Transactions.  In 
the  Medical  Times  he  reviewed,  in  an  interesting  article, 
a  case  of  "  Retro-pharyngeal  Abscess,"^  and  a  paper  on 
"  Cheyne-Stokes  Respiration  in  Tubercular  Meningitis"  ap- 
peared in  the  Times  of  1876.  In  this  year  he  was  elected 
Professor  of  Clinical  Medicine  in  the  University,  to  succeed 
Dr.  Alfred  Stille,  an  honor  of  peculiar  distinction,  as  he  thus 
succeeded  to  the  chair  vacated  by  the  death  of  his  father 
twelve  years  before.* 

Two  years  before  he  had  been  appointed  Professor  of 
Clinical  Medicine  in  the  University  Hospital.^     In   1873  he 

^  It  has  been  accepted  by  the  distinguished  German  specialist, 
Eichhorst. 

^  Published  in  its  Transactions  for  that  year  and  republished  in 
pamphlet  form.      Philadelphia:   Collins,  Printer,  1875;   28  pp. 

^  September. 

*  MS.  notice  of  appointment,  Cadwalader  Biddle,  Secretary,  April 
4,1876. 

*  MS.  letter  from  Cadwalader  Biddle,  February  5. 

69 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1875 

was  offered,  but  declined,  an  election  as  Trustee  ot  the  Uni- 
versity, and  also  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Health,  but 
soon  after  his  appointment  as  Professor  of  Clinical  Medicine 
in  the  Hospital  he  accepted  an  election  to  its  Board  of 
Managers.  In  1875  he  became  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Medical  Society,  and  of  the  Centennial  Medical  Com- 
mission. He  also  became  a  member  of  the  Social  Art  Club. 
It  was  in  this  year  that,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
organize  the  Art  Museum,  his  first  serious  effort  was  made 
to  organize  a  School  of  Industrial  Arts.^  The  name  of 
his  cousin,  William  Piatt  Pepper,  is  identified  with  the  later 
history  of  the  school. 

On  June  25,  1873,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Frances 
Sergeant  Perry,  daughter  of  Dr.  Christopher  Grant  Perry, 
of  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  Frances  Sergeant,  of  Phila- 


'  See  Report  of  the  Provisional  Committee,  Dr.  Pepper,  Chair- 
man (John  Sartain,  Henry  C.  Gibson,  Thomas  Cochran,  Coleman 
Sellers,  James  L.  Claghorn  and  Samuel  Wagner,  Jr.),  of  a  meeting 
of  citizens  held  November  19,  1875.  The  object  therein  stated 
was  to  establish  in  Philadelphia,  for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  a 
Museum  of  Art  in  its  branches  as  applied  to  industry  and  in  all  of 
its  technical  applications,  and  to  provide  in  connection  therewith, 
with  a  special  view  to  the  development  of  the  art  industries  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  opportunities  and  means  of  giving  instruction 
"  in  drawing,  painting,  modelling  and  designing  in  their  industrial 
applications  through  lectures,  practical  schools,  and  special  libra- 
ries." And  in  "character  and  general  scope,  to  be  in  all  re- 
spects similar  to  that  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  London." 
See  also  a  letter  by  Professor  Walter  Smith,  State  Director  for  Art 
Education,  Massachusetts,  Boston,  September  25,  1875,  to  Dr. 
Pepper  and  others  constituting  the  Provisional  Committee  on  the 
organization  of  a  Museum  of  Art  in  Philadelphia. 

70 


JEr.  32]     CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

delphia.  Dr.  Perry,  the  eldest  son  of  Commodore  Oliver 
Hazard  Perry,  was  both  a  lawyer  and  a  physician,  and  was 
an  alumnus  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Miss  Perry's 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  Richard  Bache  and  Sarah  Frank- 
lin, the  only  daughter  of  Dr.  Benjamin  and  Deborah  Frank- 
lin. Until  his  marriage  Dr.  Pepper  resided  at  1215  Wal- 
nut Street,  the  home  of  his  childhood,  but  soon  after  his 
marriage  he  purchased  the  house  at  181 1  Spruce  Street,  ad- 
joining the  residence  of  Mrs.  Perry.  Alterations  were  made 
and  the  buildings  were  thrown  together.  The  two  front 
rooms  of  the  first  floor  became  his  offices.  Some  years  after 
his  marriage  he  and  his  fellow-trustees  of  his  father's  estate 
purchased  for  his  mother  the  adjoining  house,  No.  1813, 
where  she  lived  with  one  of  his  sisters.  Two  other  sisters 
soon  afterward  took  houses  near  by,  so  that  for  many  years 
the  four  families  were  immediate  neighbors. 

His  father  had  served  as  vestryman  of  St.  Mark's  Church, 
and  not  long  after  his  death  Dr.  Pepper  succeeded  him  in 
this  office ;  but  in  1 876  he  resigned  the  position,  and  his 
family  in  later  years  attended  St.  James's  Church,  at  Twenty- 
second  and  Walnut  Streets. 

On  November  26,  1875,  he  was  appointed  Medical 
Director  of  the  International  Exhibition  to  be  held  in  Phila- 
delphia during  the  following  year.  Early  in  1876  the 
Medical  Department  of  the  approaching  Exhibition  was 
organized,  consisting  of  the  Medical  Director,  a  Staff  com- 
posed of  six  medical  officers,  and  a  Secretary  who  was  also 
to  be  resident  physician  at  the  hospital  on  the  Exhibition 
grounds. 

The  problems  before  the  Medical  Director  were  numer- 
ous and  perplexing.  He  was  general  adviser  on  sanitary 
questions,  and  it  became  incumbent  upon  him  to  issue  in 

71 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1876 

popular  form  authoritative  information  on  the  hygienic 
condition  of  Philadelphia.  The  circular  which  he  issued 
was  widely  distributed  and  reprinted  both  in  this  country 
and  in  Europe.  It  remains  a  valuable  summary  of  the 
condition  of  Philadelphia  in  1876.  It  was  followed  by 
other  circulars,  during  the  season,  treating  of  the  sanitary 
precautions  necessary  to  be  taken  by  visitors  to  the  Ex- 
position. The  important  subjects  of  the  drainage  and 
water  supplies  of  the  Exhibition  grounds  were,  however, 
placed  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  Chief  Engineer. 
Almost  the  first  duty  of  Dr.  Pepper  was  to  superintend  the 
erection  and  construction  of  a  hospital  on  the  grounds.  It 
was  placed  in  a  retired,  shaded  and  picturesque  location  on 
Lansdowne  Avenue ;  was  a  model  hospital  and  embodied 
much  of  the  experience  he  had  gained  in  building  the 
University  Hospital. 

At  the  close  of  the  Centennial  he  issued  an  official  report 
as  Medical  Director.  The  efficiency  of  the  medical  service 
during  the  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  days  in  which  the 
Centennial  was  open  to  the  public  and  was  visited  by  nearly 
ten  million  persons,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  out  of  the 
nearly  sixty-five  hundred  cases  treated  in  the  Lansdowne 
Hospital  there  were  only  four  deaths :  two  from  apoplexy 
and  two  from  organic  disease  of  the  heart.  There  was 
much  sickness  among  the  resident  foreign  representatives, 
especially  among  the  Japanese,  some  fifty  in  number,  whose 
beautiful  dwellings  of  oriental  workmanship  and  taste  were 
wholly  unsuitable  to  the  spring  and  autumn  weather  of 
Philadelphia.  The  danger  from  disease  was  increased  by 
the  mode  of  heating  these  dwellings — a  small  shallow  box 
filled  with  sand  and  placed  in  the  centre  of  each  room,  upon 
which  a  few  small  pieces  of  charcoal  were  kept  burning ; 

72 


IEt.  33]     CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

there  was  no  outlet  for  the  fumes  of  the  burning  carbon 
and  no  ventilation  when  the  rooms  were  closed. 

The  efficiency  of  the  Bureau  of  Medical  Service  was 
appreciated  by  the  public.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  never 
before  did  so  vast  a  concourse  of  people  assemble  and  meet 
with  so  few  accidents  and  disasters  while  attending  an  inter- 
national exposition.  The  public  was  indebted  to  Dr.  Pep- 
per almost  wholly  for  the  sanitary  arrangements  which  existed 
at  the  Centennial.  The  English  Government  formally  ex- 
pressed its  appreciation  of  the  care  and  attention  which  its 
Commission  received  from  the  Bureau  of  Medical  Service.^ 
A  more  personal  recognition  of  Dr.  Pepper's  services  was 
made  by  the  King  of  Norway  and  Sweden,  who  appointed 
him  a  Knight  Commander  of  the  Order  of  St.  Olaf  ^ 

His  success  in  the  medical  directorship  of  the  Centennial 
was  recognized  by  his  friends  and  by  the  public  at  large  as 
evidence  of  extraordinary  executive  ability.  He  was  only 
thirty-three  years  of  age :  an  age  when  most  physicians  are 
getting  settled  into  practice  and  when  few  have  achieved 
reputation.  His  conduct  of  the  University  Hospital  matter 
and  his  administration  of  the  Medical  Bureau  at  the  Cen- 
tennial had  made  his  name  familiar  to  the  people  of 
Philadelphia  and  to  many  thousands  in  other  parts  of  the 
Union.  The  result  was  a  sudden  increase  in  his  practice  as  a 
consultant,  which  from  this  time  became  extensive  and  exact- 
ing. His  private  practice,  of  course,  was  greatly  increased, 
but  he  did  not  allow  his  duties  at  the  Hospital  or  at  the 


^  MS.  letters  from  British  Commission  to  Dr.  Pepper,  December 
II,  1876;  January  29,  1877. 

^  MS.   letter    from    C.    Lewenhaupt,    Swedish    and    Norwegian 
Minister,  to  Dr.  Pepper,  July  10,  1877. 

73 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1877 

Centennial  to  engross  his  attention  so  as  to  interfere  with  his 
contributions  to  the  medical  journals.  A  paper  on  "  Addi- 
son's Disease  "  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences 
for  January,  1877.  His  clinical  lectures  were  published 
both  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.^ 

On  March  7  of  this  year  he  read  a  paper  before  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  "  Administration 
of  Nitrate  of  Silver  and  the  Occurrence  of  a  Blue  Line  on  the 
Gums  as  the  Earliest  Sign  of  Argyria,"^  an  original  observa- 
tion of  this  condition.  Dr.  Ringer,  an  English  authority, 
writing  in  1889,  attributes  the  discovery  to  Dr.  Pepper.^ 

With  the  new  year  he  added  to  his  clinical  lectures  a 
course  on  Morbid  Anatomy,  a  subject  in  which  he  took  a 
deep  interest  all  of  his  life.  Of  academic  importance  at 
this  time  was  his  address,  on  October  1,  1877,  ^"^  ^^  ^^^" 
iect  of  "  Higher  Medical  Education,  the  True  Interest  of 
the  Public  and  of  the  Profession,"  delivered  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  one  hundred  and  twelfth  course  of  lectures  at  the 
Medical  Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  address  was  published  by  the  Board  of  Trustees.* 

Dr.  Pepper  had  utilized  his  opportunities  as  Medical 
Director  of  the  Centennial  to  inform  himself  of  the  con- 
dition of  medical  instruction  in  foreign  countries.  Through 
the  assistance  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Honorable  William 
M.  Evarts,  and  the  Assistant  Secretary,  Honorable  Fred- 


^  In  the  Nexv  Tork  Medical  Record^  the  Medical  Reporter^  and  the 
Medical  Times. 

^  Transactions,  Third  Series,  Volume  II. 

^  Hand-book  of  Therapeutics,  by  Sydney  Ringer,  M.D.,  Twelfth 
Edition. 

*  Philadelphia  :   Collins,  Printer,  1877.     46  pp. 

74 


ia     > 


^T.  34]     CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

erick  W.  Seward,  he  obtained  a  vast  mass  of  data  in  foreign 
lands.  The  Centennial  year  was  naturally  one  of  retrospec- 
tion :  the  closing  of  an  old  era,  the  opening  of  a  new  one. 
Dr.  Pepper  was  looking  far  into  the  future,  and  he  utilized 
his  opportunity  at  the  University  to  review  in  this  address 
the  whole  history  of  modern  medicine  and  to  point  out  the 
reforms  needed  in  this  country,  and  especially  at  the  Univer- 
sity, to  bring  higher  medical  education  into  conformity  with 
the  demands  of  the  profession  and  of  the  public.  The  ad- 
dress possesses  historic  interest.  It  is  an  exact  description 
of  the  status  of  medical  schools  and  medical  education  in 
the  United  States  in  1876.  Compared  with  the  status  at  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  condition  seems  startling. 
Inefficient  preparation,  inadequate  clinical  and  laboratory 
equipment,  insufficient  training,  excessive  multiplication  of 
medical  schools,  a  course  of  study  altogether  too  brief  for 
professional  preparation,  and  the  prevalence  of  the  fee  sys- 
tem for  professors  and  instructors  instead  of  a  system  of 
graduated  salaries,  were  the  principal  evils  of  the  day.  To 
correct  these  was  the  serious  purpose  of  Dr.  Pepper's  life, 
and  the  method  ot  correction  was  the  theme  of  his  address. 
It  was  received  by  the  better  part  of  the  profession  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  given ;  but  "  the  foes  of  a  man  are 
those  of  his  own  household,"  and  many  of  the  reforms 
which  Dr.  Pepper  urged  in  this  address  were  stubbornly 
resisted  by  some  of  his  colleagues.  Opposition  to  reforms 
upon  which  he  had  fixed  his  heart  only  stimulated  him  to 
greater  exertion,  and  the  fate  of  the  old  system  ultimately 
befell  those  who  now  opposed  him. 

On  November  27,  1877,  the  Honorable  John  Welsh 
was  tendered  a  farewell  banquet  at  the  Aldine  by  promi- 
nent  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  the   occasion   being  his  de- 

75 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1878 

parture  as  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  the  court  of  St.  James, 
to  which  he  had  been  appointed  by  President  Hayes.  The 
occasion  afforded  an  opportunity  to  recognize  in  a  pubHc 
manner  the  great  services  which  Mr.  Welsh  had  rendered 
to  the  University.  In  his  remarks  on  this  occasion  Dr. 
Pepper  said, — 

"  We  have  many  noble  hospitals,  admirably  adapted  for  the  needs 
of  this  great  and  growing  community,  but  each  and  all  of  them  are 
crippled  by  want  of  adequate  endowment.  Philadelphia  can  now 
boast  of  a  University  so  well  organized  and  so  well  equipped  in  all 
its  departments  that  it  needs  only  the  general  support  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  generous  assistance  of  the  wealthy,  to  enable  it  to 
become  so  powerful  as  a  centre  of  learning  and  thought  that  it  shall 
bring  back  to  this  city  its  lost  pre-eminence  as  the  centre  of  literary 
culture  and  intellectual  activity  on  this  continent.  No  city  can 
hope  ever  to  hold  such  a  position  whose  citizens  do  not  feel  a 
pride  in  their  institutions  of  learning  and  of  art,  and  show  their  pride 
by  the  loyal  and  liberal  support  they  always  extend  to  them.  And 
it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  precisely  this  duty  which  is  impressed  upon 
us  most  strongly  by  the  example  of  such  men  as  Mr.  Welsh."  ^ 

The  friendship  existing  between  Mr.  Welsh  and  Dr. 
Pepper  is  intimated  by  the  following  letter : 

"  MoNNETiN,  Savoy,  France,  September  21,  1878. 

"  My  dear  Dr.  Pepper  : 

"  I  little  thought  so  long  a  time  had  elapsed  since  your  two  letters 
reached  me.  I  will  not  apologize  for  their  neglect,  as  it  seems  as  if 
it  was  impossible  for  me,  having  regard  for  the  various  demands 
upon  my  time,  to  have  done  much  better  .  .  .  and  yet  I  have  many 
unanswered  notes  upon  my  file.  Dr.  Abbott  will  have  long  since 
reached  you,  having  completed  his  mission,  certainly  to  his  satisfac- 
tion, and  I  hope  to  yours.    He  seemed  to  me  to  be  entirely  in  earnest. 


'  Philadelphia  North  Jmerican^  November  28,  1877. 
76 


JEt.  35]      CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

"  I  am  glad  to  know  that  Mr.  Bennett  has  had  the  good  judg- 
ment to  put  himself  in  such  confidential  relations  with  you.  One 
of  the  common  errors  of  the  day  is  the  desire  of  creating  some- 
thing new  instead  of  developing  to  its  full  extent  an  institution 
which  already  is  in  existence,  has  a  position  of  usefulness,  and  is 
under  good  government.  In  Boston  and  in  New  Haven  there  has 
been  a  city  pride  in  their  institutions  which  has  caused  large  sums 
of  money  to  be  given  to  them  by  individuals  whose  names  are  con- 
nected with  their  gifts,  than  which  I  know  of  no  gifts  which  have 
proved  more  useful.  This  spirit  we  must  cultivate.  I  am  quite 
sure  that  a  thorough  consideration  of  the  subject  on  the  part  of  any 
one,  who  wants  to  make  a  gift  thoroughly  and  permanently  useful, 
will  convince  him  that  in  no  way  can  he  be  more  successful  than  in 
connection  with  our  University.  It  is  well  established.  It  is  well 
situated.  It  has  now  eight  hundred  thousand  people  at  its  doors 
and  with  the  State  whose  name  it  bears  from  which  to  draw  its 
students,  on  which  to  shed  influence.  It  is  a  noble  field.  The 
way  you  suggest,  or  perhaps,  I  ought  to  say  Mr.  Bennett  suggests, 
appears  to  me  most  wise.  A  large  dormitory,  with  scholarships  to 
bear  his  name,  would  secure  to  him  an  honored  immortality.  Since 
my  residence  in  England  just  such  an  instance  of  benevolence  has 
come  under  my  notice  in  connection  with  the  Universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  founded  many  centuries  ago,  more  active  in  their 
usefulness  now  than  they  were  originally,  and  promising  to  con- 
tinue so  whilst  time  lasts.  Keble  College  is  the  outgrowth  of  the 
generosity  of  some  of  his  friends,  and  among  them  the  chapel, 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  costly  of  modern  times,  is  the  gift 
of  a  Mr.  Gibbs,  recently  deceased,  and  I  was  present  at,  and,  to 
my  embarrassment,  had  to  take  part  in,  the  dedication  of  the  re- 
fectory and  library,  the  gift  of  two  of  Mr.  Gibbs's  sons.  I  must 
say  that  what  you  propose  would  be  most  agreeable  to  me  as  the 
donor,  because  I  would  alone  provide  for  the  board  and  lodging  of 
the  students  and  fellows  and  to  make  myself  feel  as  the  exclusive 
benefactor  I  would   provide  that  so  much  should  go  to  the  income 

77 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1878 

for  the  education  of  the  students  and  fellows.  It  is  rather  a  curious 
fact  that  money  given  for  educational  purposes  has  been  more  faith- 
fully applied  and  its  purposes  have  been  more  permanent  and  less 
subject  to  change  than  most  other  kinds  of  benefactions. 

"  I  am  glad  to  know  that  you  took  occasion  to  impress  upon  the 
friends  of  the  University  the  necessity  of  regarding  it  as  a  unit.  Not 
until  that  feeling  prevails  more  extensively  than  it  does  now  will  it 
gain  the  strength  that  it  needs,  and  when  it  does  the  University  will 
have  the  hold  upon  the  community  which  it  should  have  had  long 
since.  I  have  schooled  myself  never  to  despair  of  gaining  the  ear 
of  any  one,  and  therefore  I  would  continue  judiciously  to  try  and 
excite  Dr.  Evans's  ^  interest  in  our  work.  I  am  afraid  that  he  and 
his  money  are  too  firmly  welded  together  to  part  during  life,  but  he 
may  like  to  indulge  in  the  pleasing  anticipation  of  the  good  that  his 
industry  will  secure  to  future  generations,  and  your  advice  may  help 
him  to  make  a  good  will,  although  it  may  fail  to  draw  from  him  any- 
thing for  your  present  purpose.  I  expect  to  be  in  Paris  next  week, 
when  I  shall  endeavor  to  see  him.  I  hope  your  Dental  Department 
will  be  in  readiness  for  your  fall  course.  I  shall  await  with  great 
interest  the  accounts  of  the  fall  opening  of  the  several  schools  and 
classes. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  know  that  the  political  movements  on  this  side  the 
ocean  take  so  deep  a  hold  upon  you.  It  is  particularly  unfortunate 
when  the  hours  due  to  sleep  are  intruded  upon  by  thought.  With 
me,  when  in  health,  to  lie  down  on  my  bed  is  to  sleep,  and  when  I 
awake,  as  I  am  apt  to  do  once  or  twice,  to  catch  a  thought  is  but  the 
step  to  a  renewed  slumber.  I  hope  you  will  not  cultivate  insomnia. 
It  is  too  often  done  by  students.  I  believe  it  one  of  the  most  serious 
ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to.  During  all  the  agitation  of  the  Eastern 
question  it  gave  me  no  concern,  for  I  felt  assured   that  the  struggle 


^  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Evans,  the  celebrated  American  dentist,  in 
Paris,  who  bequeathed  the  bulk  of  his  estate  to  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia to  found  a  Museum  and  Dental  Institute  in  his  memory. 

78 


^T.  35]      CENTENNIAL    MEDICAL    DIRECTOR 

wouM  be  one  confined  to  a  division  of  the  spoils.  It  so  proved.  I 
do  not  believe  Russia  ever  thought  of  an  armed  adversary  but  in 
Turkey.  All  that  she  gained  was  due  to  the  neutrality  of  the  other 
nations,  and  her  only  care  was  to  retain  what  she  could.  The 
sequel  proved  that  my  judgment  was  correct,  and  when  I  :witted  my 
English  friends  with  the  question  what  they  wanted  they  assured  me 
that  under  no  consideration  would  they  increase  their  territory.  I 
know  they  wanted  Egypt,  but  the  French  think  that  their  traditions 
would  not  allow  it.  They  looked  towards  Crete,  but  they  had  been 
the  avowed  friends  of  Greece  and  it  would  seem  ungenerous  did  they 
take  it ;  Russia  consenting,  perhaps  suggesting,  they  were  satisfied 
with  Cyprus  and  the  prospective  advantages  which  are  yet  in  store 
in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria.  Beaconsfield  is  now  the  man  of  the  age, 
towering  above  all  immediately  around  him,  and,  I  have  no  doubt, 
drawing  from  the  great  eminence  he  has  reached  as  much  gratifica- 
tion as  one  can  well  derive  from  any  worldly  honors.  His  appear- 
ance does  not  encourage  the  expectation  that  his  life  will  continue 
many  years. 

"  Mr.  King,  of  Pittsburg,  called  on  me  when  he  was  in  London. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  in  our  Legis- 
ture.  I  asked  him  why  the  appropriation  for  the  University  failed 
last  winter.  He  said  it  was  merely  because  they  had  not  enough 
money  for  both,  and,  as  we  had  received  more  than  the  Jefferson, 
it  was  considered  right  to  give  to  it  and  that  we  would  get  ours  this 
winter  or  the  next  session.     This  you  will  bear  in  mind. 


"  I  have  been  here  a  fortnight,  walking,  eating,  sleeping  soundly, 
enjoying  fine  air,  reading  and  writing  a  little.  Just  now  I  have  with 
me  my  daughter  Ellen  and  Mrs.  Smith,  with  her  husband  and  their 
son.  In  two  days  we  go  to  Paris.  Spend  a  few  days  there  and 
return  to  London.  My  health  has  been  uninterruptedly  good  since 
I  left  home.  I  hope  that  Mrs.  Pepper  and  the  children  and  yourself 
are  well.     I  fear  you  have  suffered  from  heat.     We  have  not.     The 

79 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1878 

season  has  been  remarkably  pleasant.     With  kind  remembrance  to 
your  associates  in  the  University,  and  to  Mrs.  Pepper,  I  am, 

"  Most  sincerely  yours, 

"Jno.  Welsh." 

In  1878  Dr.  Pepper  contributed  to  current  medical  liter- 
ature, and  chiefly  to  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Times,  one 
article  reporting  a  case  of  "  Aneurism  of  the  Thoracic  Aorta 
with  unusual  Physical  Signs ;"  ^  another  on  "  Paracentesis 
of  the  Pericardium,  with  a  Successful  Case ;"  ^  and  a  third, 
"  Catarrhal  Jaundice,  with  Special  Reference  to  the  Internal 
Use  of  Nitrate  of  Silver,"  the  last  named  read  before  the 
Pennsylvania  State  Medical  Society  and  published  in  its 
Transactions.  He  also  read  a  paper  before  the  Philadelphia 
County  Medical  Society  on  "  Functional  and  Organic 
Anaemias  and  Milk  Transfusion  in  their  Treatment,"  which 
was  published  in  the  Medical  Times.  His  clinical  lectures 
were  reported  as  usual.  He  published  in  the  Medical  and 
Surgical  Reporter  for  May  a  thoughtful  article  on  "  Kou- 
miss," which  soon  after  was  reprinted  in  pamphlet  form. 

During  the  next  year  his  clinical  lectures  were  published 
as  usual,  and  he  wrote  two  professional  papers :  on  the 
"Completion  of  Paracentesis  of  the  Pericardium,"  in  the 
American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences^  and  on  "  The  Clin- 
ical Study  of  Exophthalmic  Goitre,"  published  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Pennsylvania  State  Medical  Society.  He 
was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Climate  Committee  of  the 
American  Medical  Association,  to  prepare  a  special  report 
on  "  Sanitary  and  Mineral  Waters,"  which  in  the  form  of  a 


^Medical  Times,  January,  1878. 
"^Medical  News  and  Library,  March,  1878. 
^  April  2,  1879. 

80 


^T.  37]     CENTENNIAL  MEDICAL  DIRECTOR 

"  Report  on  Mineral  Springs,"  prepared  in  conjunction  with 
Dr.  Bowditch,  he  presented  to  the  Association  at  its  New 
York  meeting  in  May,  1880.  It  was  printed  among  its 
Transactions.^  At  this  meeting  he  read  a  paper  on  "The 
Local  Treatment  of  Pulmonary  Cavities."  In  the  same 
month  he  read  before  the  Pennsylvania  State  Medical  So- 
ciety, at  its  meeting  at  Altoona,  a  paper  entitled  "  Practical 
Remarks  on  the  Treatment  of  Asthma  ;"  and  in  June,  before 
the  Oxford  Medical  Society,  he  read  one  on  "  The  Treatment 
of  Chronic  Rheumatism."  ^  In  the  Medical  Times  for  August 
appeared  an  article  by  him  on  the  "  Administration  of  Phos- 
phoric Acid."  ^  He  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  Section 
of  Medicine  of  the  American  Medical  Association  for  its 
meeting  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  May,  1881. 

During  the  winter  of  1879-1880  he  inaugurated  the 
Charity  Ball,  a  social  function  which  has  continued  to  the 
present  time  and  has  contributed  annually  the  profits  of  its 
pleasures  to  the  charitable  organizations  of  Philadelphia. 
Among  the  many  creations  of  Dr.  Pepper  none  gave  him 
livelier  satisfaction  than  the  Charity  Ball.  It  brought  to- 
gether a  multitude  of  people  who  otherwise,  under  the  con- 
servative rules  and  traditions  of  Philadelphia,  might  never 
have  assembled,  and,  for  the  time  obllcerating  many  social 
distinctions,  afforded  an  opportunity  for  pleasure  and  public 
charity.     It  has  become  one  of  the  annual  events  in  the  life 


^  In  this  report  Dr.  Pepper  collaborated  with  Drs.  Henry  I.  Bow- 
ditch,  A.  N.  Bell,  Stanford  E.  Chaille,  and  Charles  Denison  ;  their 
report  was  published  in  pamphlet  form. 

^  June  21,  1880.  Reprinted  in  pamphlet  form  (New  York,  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons)  from  the  Archives  of  Medicine^  October,  1 880.    27  pp. 

^  August  14,  1880. 
6  81 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1880 

of  the  city.  Not  until  1894  did  he  retire  from  active  par- 
ticipation in  the  work  of  its  executive  committee,  at  which 
time,  speaking  of  the  origin  and  purposes  of  the  ball,  he 
wrote : 

"  I  believe  now,  as  I  believed  when  it  was  organized  fifteen  years 
ago,  that  it  serves  a  useful  purpose  in  our  civic  life,  ^  and  that  the 
interests  of  our  worthy  institutions  are  promoted  by  having  the 
attention  of  the  entire  community  drawn  each  year  in  this  attrac- 
tive way  to  the  ever-present  claims  of  charity.  I  am  glad  to  think 
that  much  good  has  already  been  accomplished  and  that  the  enduring 
success  of  our  Charity  Balls  is  secured  by  the  efficient  management 
of  those  to  whom  their  interests  are  confided."  * 

In  1880  he  accomplished  another  piece  of  work,  published 
under  the  title  of  "  A  Further  Contribution  to  the  Local 
Treatment  of  Pulmonary  Cavities ;"  ^  and  in  August  of  that 
year  reported  a  similar  case  in  the  Medical  and  Surgical 
Reporter,  of  Philadelphia.* 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1880  that  Dr.  Pepper 
was  nominated  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  consequences  of  which  act  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
changed  the  course  of  his  life.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  been 
the  pubiic-bplrlted  physician,  active  in  large  undertakings, 
primarily  on  behalf  of  his  profession,  and  of  the  highest 
importance  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  community.     His 


^  In  1883  ^^^  University  Hospital  received  twelve  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars,  and  in  1889  two  thousand  dollars  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  ball.     See  Provost's  Report  for  these  years. 

^  MS.  November  19,  1894. 

^  Transactions  of  the  American  Medical  Association.  Philadel- 
phia:  Collins,  Printer.      1880.      23  pp. 

*  August  28,  1880,  Vol.  XLIIL,  No.  9. 

82 


JEt.  37]     CENTENNIAL  MEDICAL  DIRECTOR 

address  on  "  Higher  Education  the  True  Interest  of  the  Pub- 
lic and  of  the  Profession,"  dehvered  at  the  opening  of  the 
session  of  the  Medical  School  in  1877,  had  attracted  wide 
attention  because  of  its  clear  formulation  of  the  needs  of 
medical  education.  It  was  a  strong  plea  for  rational  instruc- 
tion, which,  of  course,  implied  adequate  equipment  on  the 
material  side.  This  was  Dr.  Pepper's  first  educational  ad- 
dress, and,  though  not  the  sole  or  even  the  primary  cause  of 
his  nomination  to  the  provostship,  pointed  the  way  in  which 
men  and  things  were  moving.  Its  academic  breadth  and 
the  conviction  among  the  Trustees  that  its  author  could  put 
the  University  upon  a  sound  financial  basis,  undoubtedly 
influenced  them  in  making  the  nomination. 


83 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1881 

IV 

PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 
1881-1887 

IN  February,  1881,  Dr.  Pepper  gave  an  address  before 
the  Philadelphia  County  Medical  Association,  taking 
for  his  theme  "  The  Treatment  of  Typhoid  Fever." 
In  May,  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  he  addressed  the  American 
Medical  Association  on  "  Catarrhal  Irritation  ;"  ^  and  a  week 
later,  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Association  on  the  "  Effects 
of  the  Prolonged  Use  of  Alcohol  on  the  Organs  of  the 
Special  Senses."  Shortly  before  this  he  was  honored  by 
Dr.  James  Tyson  who  dedicated  to  him  one  of  his  medical 
works.^ 

In  June  he  entered  upon  what  proved  to  be  his  principal 
medical  work,  by  assuming  the  editorship  of  "  The  System 
of  Medicine  by  American  Authors."  In  July  he  gave  final 
revision  to  the  eighth  edition  of  his  "  Diseases  of  Children." 
His  election  as  Provost,  in  January,  was  followed  by  an 
election  as  honorary  member  of  the  Harrisburg  Pathologi- 
cal Society  in  February,'  and,  in  May,  as  President  of  the 
Mutual  Aid  Society  of  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical 
Association.  In  June,  Lafayette  College  conferred  on  him 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws.  In  this  month  he  resigned 
the  Vice-Presidency  of  the  University  Club,  and  in  Decem- 


^May  4,  1881. 

^  MS.  letter  from  Dr.  Tyson  to  Dr.  Pepper,  April  7,  1881. 

•'  February  4,  1881. 

84 


JEr.  38]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

ber  resigned  his  office  as  Trustee  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Museum  and  School  of  Industrial  Art.  The  "  System  of 
Medicine,"  which  he  had  undertaken  to  supervise  and  in 
part  to  write,  occupied  him  fully  during  1882,  so  that  he 
made  fewer  contributions  than  usual  during  that  year  to 
current  literature.  In  April,  he  received  from  Dr.  Austin 
Flint  the  following  tribute  and  recognition  of  professional 
work,  and  particularly  of  his  pamphlet  on  the  "  Local 
Treatment  of  Pulmonary  Cavities,"^  printed  in  1880,  but 
worked  out  two  years  earlier : 

♦'New   York,   April  2,    1882. 

"  I  am  engaged  in  writing  my  article  on  '•  Phthisis,'  and  I  have 
been  led  to  read  with  care  and  think  of  your  observations  with 
respect  to  the  injection  of  cavities.  I  confess  with  shame  that  I  had 
not  given  the  matter  sufficient  consideration  prior  to  the  last  edition 
of  '  Practice,'  and  that  my  first  impression  was  against  the  utility 
of  experimental  trials  of  the  measure.  My  object  in  this  note  is  to 
apologize  for  not  having  referred  to  your  labors  and  to  confess 
frankly  that  I  have  not  until  now  appreciated  their  value. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"A.  Flint."  2 

An  article  on  the  "  Pancreatic  Diseases,"  w  hich  appeared 
in  the  Medical  News  for  December,  represents  his  miscel- 
laneous writings  during  1 882.  In  the  autumn  of  this  year  he 
was  chosen  a  member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine and  was  appointed  to  the  committee  of  arrangements 


*  A  Further  Contribution  to  the  Local  Treatment  of  Pulmonary 
Cavities,  by  William  Pepper,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Clinical 
Medicine  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia  :  Col- 
lins, Printer.      1880.      23  pp. 

*MS. 

85 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1884 

of  the  National  Association  for  the  Protection  of  the  In- 
sane.^ He  now  resigned  from  the  Obstetrical  Society,  and 
also  as  visiting  physician  to  the  Children's  Hospital,  with 
which  he  had  been  for  many  years  identified.  His  letter  of 
resignation  called  forth  from  the  officials  of  the  institution 
a  gratifying  recognition  of  his  long  services.^ 

His  lectures  at  the  University  on  "  Renal  Diseases  "  during 
1883  appeared  regularly  in  the  Medical  Times  of  that  year. 
In  June  he  read  before  the  Pennsylvania  Medical  Society  a 
paper  entitled  "  Contribution  to  the  Clinical  Study  of  Typh- 
litis," published  in  its  Transactions.  He  was  chosen  Vice- 
President  of  the  local  committee  to  receive  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  at  its  ap- 
proaching meeting  in  Philadelphia,  and  on  its  assembling^ 
made  the  address  of  welcome. 

His  clinical  lectures  for  1884  appeared  regularly  in  the 
Medical  Bulletin.^  In  March  he  delivered  the  address  before 
the  American  Medical  Association,  at  Washington,  D.  C, 
on  the  subject  of  "  Epilepsy,"  and,  in  April,  another  on 
"  Force  vs.  Work :  Some  Practical  Remarks  on  Dietetics 
in  Disease,"  before  the  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Faculty 
of  Maryland,  at  its  Baltimore  Convention.^     This   address 


^  MS.  letter  from  Richard  J.  Dunglison,  Secretary,  November  6, 
1882  ;  elected  a  member  of  the  Academy  October  26,  1882. 

^MS.  letter  from  F.  W.  Lewis,  Secretary,  December  2,  1882. 

^Academy  of  Music,  September  4,  1884. 

*  The  Medical  Bulletin^  A  Monthly  Journal  of  Medicine  and  Sur- 
ger)',  edited  by  John  V.  Shoemaker,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Philadelphia. 

■^  April  23,  1884,  printed  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Faculty  and 
also  in  pamphlet  form.  Baltimore  :  Journal  Publishing  Company 
Print,  No.  35  Park  Avenue.      1884.      20  pp. 

86 


JEr.  41]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

attracted    wide   attention  and  is   all  worthy   of  quotation. 
These  passages  indicate  its  scope  and  spirit : 

"  In  estimating  the  influence  of  the  great  factors  of  our  physical 
life  upon  the  development  of  the  individual  or  of  the  race,  I  have 
long  felt  that  far  too  much  importance  has  been  attached  to  climate 
and  far  too  little  to  diet  and  personal  hygiene.  No  more  can 
the  average  man  attain  his  full  moral  growth  and  the  normal 
perception  of  freedom  and  of  obligation  under  evil  forms  of  gov- 
ernment, or  under  the  sway  of  gross  religious  superstitions,  than 
he  can  attain  his  full  physical  development  under  the  influence  of 
bad  dietetic  traditions  and  of  uneducated  appetites.  No  weight  can 
be  attached  to  the  fact  that  exceptional  individuals  in  every  com- 
munity display  the  highest  physical  and  intellectual  health  and 
vigor  while  pursuing  courses  of  life  admissibly  injurious.  A  sepa- 
rate study  of  these  exceptional  cases  is  much  needed,  and  would 
possess  great  interest  and  practical  value.  But,  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  laws  of  dietetics  and  hygiene,  we  are  concerned  only 
with  the  average  man,  and  of  him  we  may  safely  make  the  above 
assertion. 

"  No  people  need  the  diffusion  of  sound  information  on  these 
subjects  as  badly  as  we  do.  In  India  we  have  had  the  opportunity 
of  observing  the  curiously  interesting  results  of  subjecting  large 
numbers  of  Anglo-Saxons,  and  in  many  mstances  through  succes- 
sive generations,  to  climatic  conditions  diametrically  opposite  to 
those  familiar  to  that  race.  In  Australia  a  similar  experiment  is 
being  conducted  on  an  even  larger  scale.  And  I  believe  the  ver- 
dict of  the  best  observers  is  to  the  effect  that,  with  suitable  diet 
and  regimen,  the  characteristic  health  and  energy  of  the  race  will  be 
preserved  unimpaired.  But  in  this  vast  country  we  see  a  more 
complicated  experiment  tried  on  vast  proportions.  A  nation  grow- 
ing in  numbers  with  unprecedented  rapidity,  by  aid  of  recruiting  in 
all  quarters  of  the  globe ;  a  vast  territory,  representing  wide  varie- 
ties of  soil  and  climate,  to  be  occupied  and  brought  under  cultiva- 
tion by  this  motley  multitude ;  a  fierce  contest  to  be  waged  with 

87 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1884 

strange  and  untried  climatic,  industrial,  and  social  conditions  ;  the 
gift  of  freedom,  personal,  political,  and  pecuniary,  to  be  borne  by 
millions  heretofore  comparative  strangers  to  these  blessings  :  these 
barely  hint  at  the  transcendent  difficulties  encountered  by  the  people 
of  this  country  in  planting  and  establishing  permanently  in  full  and 
typical  health  and  vigor  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Small  won- 
der that  during  the  experimental  stages  of  this  great  work  many 
curious  effects,  physical  as  well  as  social,  have  been  developed,  and 
that  pessimists  have  found  ample  food  for  prophecies  that  this  race 
would  never  become  permanently  established  and  productive  under 
climatic  conditions  so  different  from  those  familiar  to  the  chief 
components  of  our  people. 

"  The  so-called  typical  American  certainly  came  to  be  some- 
thing quite  different  from  his  British,  Irish,  or  German  ancestor, 
and  his  pale  or  sallow  face,  with  tall,  slender  figure,  full  of  the  irri- 
table restlessness  bred  of  nervous  dyspepsia,  has  been  rendered 
sufficiently  familiar  to  us ;  more  so,  in  fact,  in  the  hardly  good- 
natured  or  veracious  pages  of  travellers  and  novelists  than  in  actual 
life.^  Still  there  he  has  been,  and  there,  in  considerable  numbers, 
he  still  is  ;  and  the  interesting  question  arises  whether  his  physical 
peculiarities  are  inseparably  dependent  upon  our  climatic  conditions 
or  upon  other  and  transient  influences.  I  confess  my  own  obser- 
vation has  led  me  to  the  deliberate  conclusion  that  it  is  to  the  latter 
almost  exclusively  that  we  are  to  attribute  the  results  indicated.  It 
is  manifest  that  one  must  pay  more  attention  to  adapt  himself  suc- 


^  It  is  in  fact  to  be  noted  that  the  contrasts  used  to  heighten  the 
effects  of  vivid  pictures  of  the  physical  peculiarities  of  Americans 
have  been  drawn  from  classes  abroad  who  are  living  widely  differ- 
ent lives,  and  that  a  truer  description  of  foreign  populations  would 
show  how  ridiculously  unfair  it  is  to  adopt  the  burly,  ruddy  yeo- 
man farmer  of  the  fat  midland  counties  of  England  as  the  type  of 
the  laboring  classes  (civic  and  rural)  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
Continent. 

88 


^T.  4i]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

cessfully  to  the  extreme  features  of  a  great  continental  climate  like 
ours  than  is  required  in  the  comparatively  uniform  climate  of  Eng- 
land or  Ireland.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  malaria,  damp  soil,  and 
damp  houses,  due  to  defective  drainage,  are  deadly  but  wholly 
avoidable  foes  to  health.  And  it  is  no  less  certain  that  communi- 
ties vi'here  from  earliest  boyhood  the  excessive  use  of  tobacco  in 
the  most  injurious  forms  is  general,  where  bad  whiskey  is  a  staple 
drink  between  meals  for  the  men,  where  for  all  alike,  men,  women 
and  children,  reeking  strong  tea  and  coffee  in  unlimited  quantities 
are  consumed  at  every  meal,  while  beyond  all  this  the  reign  of  the 
frying-pan  and  the  soda  baking-powder  and  the  patent  purgative 
pill  is  universal  and  undisputed,  cannot  be  fairly  expected  to  per- 
petuate the  finer  types  of  manly  and  womanly  physique ;  and  I 
repeat  my  opinion  that  it  is  to  these  latter  influences  that  we  are 
chiefly  to  attribute  most  of  the  physical  peculiarities  commonly 
assigned  to  the  agency  of  the  American  climate.  I  believe  myself 
that,  with  due  regard  to  the  conditions  under  which  work  is  prose- 
cuted here,  it  will  be  found  that  there  is  no  more  favorable  climate 
on  earth,  and  I  appeal  to  your  observation  of  the  generations  now 
rising  in  support  of  the  prediction  that,  with  the  correction  of  what 
may,  and  surely  will,  be  corrected  in  our  physical  conditions  and 
habits  here,  there  will  be  a  gradual  advancement  in  our  average  phys- 
ical vigor,  until,  even  if  a  complete  reversion  to  our  ancestral  type  is 
not  attained,  there  will  be  developed  a  new  type,  in  no  way  inferior. 
"  The  familiar  instance  of  a  man  who  at  five  and  forty  is  at  the 
head  of  several  large  businesses  and  is  director  in  a  dozen  companies, 
and  who  finds  himself  breaking  down  with  insomnia,  headache,  gas- 
tralgia,  or  some  of  the  myriad  forms  of  nerve  suffering,  will  usually 
be  found,  on  careful  examination,  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
combined  with  his  incessant  devotion  to  his  work  a  disregard  of  the 
most  common  principles  of  dietetics  and  regimen,  and  frequently  a 
reckless  abuse  of  nerve  stimulants  or  irritants  which  of  themselves 
will  often  seem  to  have  been  sufficient  to  have  induced  the  morbid 
condition  present. 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1884 

"  The  main  object  of  one  who  starts  upon  a  large  career  is  natu- 
rally how  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  work  out  of  himself  con- 
sistent with  the  maintenance  of  health  and  the  prolongation  of  life. 
If  it  were  possible  for  all  to  appreciate  correctly  their  physical  con- 
dition and  capacity  at  the  outset,  so  that  they  could  adapt  their 
method  of  work  to  their  physical  requirements,  we  should  see  quite 
as  much  or  more  work  done  and  infinitely  fewer  instances  of 
physical  disaster.  But  there  are  many  elements  in  the  question 
which  most  of  us  realize  only  after  painful  experience,  though  I 
look  to  the  introduction  of  thorough  instruction  in  hygiene  and 
physiology  in  the  schools  and  colleges  for  a  vast  improvement  in 
this  state  of  things. 

"  The  velocity  and  range  of  a  projectile  are  directly  as  the  initial 
power  and  inversely  as  the  mass  to  be  moved,  and  this  antagonism 
of  force  and  weight  enters  into  every  physical  problem.  In  its  ap- 
plication to  the  human  body  it  is  a  most  pregnant  truth.  The  mass 
to  be  moved  before  any  effective  forthputting  work  can  be  done  is 
not  merely  the  actual  weight  of  the  body,  but  embraces  also  the 
aggregate  of  the  countless  physiological  and  chemical  acts  cease- 
lessly performed  within  the  frame.  To  adjust  the  actual  weight  of 
the  body,  therefore,  to  the  physical  powers  of  the  individual,  and  to 
render  these  innumerable  minute  processes  as  easy  and  as  complete 
as  possible,  is  the  aim  of  dietetics  and  regimen,  and  is  the  common- 
sense  policy  of  every  man  who  aspires  to  work  to  the  best  advantage. 
Even  if  all  of  us  were  typically  healthy,  normal  beings  this  would  be 
equally  true,  but  the  importance  and  necessity  of  this  proper  esti- 
mate of  our  individual  capacity,  and  of  the  habits  of  life  best  fitted 
for  each  of  us,  is  enormously  increased  by  the  fact  that  from  inher- 
itance most  persons  have  a  relative  deficiency  of  some  one  or  other 
organ  as  compared  with  the  rest  of  their  frame.  The  strength  of  a 
chain  is  tested  by  its  weakest  link.  The  enduring  capacity  of  a  man 
is  measured  by  his  weakest  organ,  only  in  our  case  we  are  able,  by 
intelligence  and  self-restraint,  to  spare  this  weak  spot,  and  thus  to 
enable  ourselves  to  tax  our  stronger  parts  their  full  capacity. 

90 


JEt.  41]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

*'  It  is  true  that  the  conditions  of  our  higher  forms  of  work  in  this 
country  have  been  more  difficult  than  in  older  and  better  organized 
communities,  but  a  rather  close  study  of  the  habits  of  professional 
and  business  men  in  different  countries  has  convinced  me  that  vastly 
too  much  importance  has  been  attached  to  the  notion  of  overwork 
in  this  country  and  vastly  too  little  to  the  question  of  '  How  to 
work,'  or  rather  '  How  to  live  while  working.'  " 

Dr.  Alfred  Stille,  ever  watchful  of  Pepper's  activities,  sent 
him  this  comment  on  this  address : 

"Philadelphia,  October  9,  1884. 

"  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  a  copy  of  your  address  in 
Maryland,  and  I  take  the  earliest  opportunity  of  expressing  my  grat- 
ification with  its  rational  and,  at  the  same  time,  large  practical  views. 
They  are  so  entirely  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  in  which  I  have 
continually  combated  the  system  of  drugging,  whether  pursued  as  a 
part  of  stupid  routine  or  under  the  guidance  of  laboratory  science, 
that  I  feel  confident  in  your  continuing  the  sound  teaching  which  I 
have  labored,  however  inadequately,  to  establish  in  the  University. 
In  more  than  one  passage  I  seemed  to  have  an  echo  (with  improve- 
ments) of  the  methods  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  insisting  upon 
most  strenuously."  ^ 

In  April,  1884,  he  was  chosen  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Medical  and  Chirurgical  Faculty  of  Maryland.  In  June  he 
resigned  the  chair  of  Clinical  Medicine  at  the  University  to 
which  he  had  been  elected  in  1876,  and  on  the  same  day^ 
was  elected  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Clinical 
Medicine.  By  this  appointment  he  succeeded  to  the  chair 
which  his  father  had  vacated  at  death  twenty  years  before. 

'  MS.  letter. 

^  June  3,  1884.  MS.  letter  of  appointment,  Jesse  Y.  Burk,  Sec- 
retary. 

91 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

During  this  intervening  time  the  chair  had  been  filled  by  the 
eminent  Dr.  Alfred  Stille',  who  now,  at  Dr.  Pepper's  appoint- 
ment, became  Professor  Emeritus.^  In  October  he  resigned 
his  position  on  the  medical  staff  at  Blockley.^ 

In  1885  appeared  the  first  three  volumes  of  his  "System 
of  Medicine,"  and  the  fourth  and  fifth  volumes  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.  This  monumental  work,  entitled  "  The  Amer- 
ican System  of  Medicine,"  immediately  sprang  into  fame. 
In  its  review  of  the  first  volume  the  American  Journal  of 
the  Medical  Sciences^  observed  : 

"  Taking  the  volume  as  a  whole  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that, 
with  but  one  or  two  exceptions,  the  articles  are  all  of  first-class 
merit  and  comparable  with  the  best  productions  of  our  foreign 
colleagues  in  similiar  works." 

The  London  Lancet,  in  its  first  notice,*  declared  that  the 
work  compared  favorably  with  Reynolds's  System  of  Med- 
icine and  Ziemssen's  great  Cyclopaedia,  and  was  superior  to 
the  English  System  of  Medicine.  In  a  second  notice  ^  the 
Lancet  observed  that  the  volumes  added  much  to  the  medical 
literature  of  the  century  and  reflected  great  credit  upon  the 
scholarship  and  practical  acumen  of  the  authors. 

"  The  magnificent  work  has  filled  us  with  feelings  of  warm  admi- 
ration," said  the  Edinburgh  Medical  Journal.^  "  We  entirely  agree 
with  the  editor  in  thinking  that  the  time  has  arrived  for  presenting 


^  On  this  occasion  Dr.  Stille  sent  a  letter  of  congratulation  to  Dr. 
Pepper.  The  highly  favorable  tone  of  public  sentiment  on  the  ap- 
pointment may  be  noted  in  the  Philadelphia  North  American^  June 
5,1884. 

2  October  10,  1884.  3  October,  1885. 

^September  26,  1885.  ^ October  3,  1885. 

*  February,  1886. 

92 


^T.  41]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

the  whole  field  of  medicine  as  taught  and  practised  in  America,  and 
we  heartily  welcome  this  System  of  Practical  Medicine,  which  gives 
such  a  complete  picture  of  its  present  state  among  our  kinsmen 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  work  is  adorned  by  a  galaxy  of  famous 
names,  many  of  them  familiar  to  the  European  student  as  represent- 
ative of  the  best  work  done  in  scientific  medicine  on  the  Western 
continent.  The  articles,  therefore,  are  to  be  regarded  as  coming 
from  the  highest  authors  on  the  principal  subjects  on  which  they 
treat." 

These  encomiums  were  re-echoed  in  spirit  through  many 
letters  received  from  eminent  practitioners.  "  The  Pepper 
System,"  as  the  work  soon  came  to  be  called,  surpassed  any- 
thing which  had  preceded  it  in  the  English  language. 

In  January,  1885,  ^^  ^^^^  before  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians and  Surgeons  a  paper  on  a  "  Case  of  Addison's  Dis- 
ease," which  was  reprinted  in  its  Transactions.^  There  was  a 
general  opinion  in  Philadelphia  at  this  time,  and,  indeed,  all 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  that,  unless  precautionary  measures 
were  taken,  the  cholera  might  gain  a  foothold  in  the  country 
during  the  summer.  Boards  of  Health  in  the  Eastern  cities 
gave  the  matter  serious  attention.  The  Trustees  of  the 
Provident  Life  and  Trust  Company,  of  Philadelphia,  re- 
quested Dr.  Pepper  to  prepare  a  paper  suitable  for  general 
circulation  on  precautions  against  the  disease.  This  he  did, 
and  it  was  published  on  the  first  day  of  May  and  distributed 
by  that  institution,*  It  was  about  this  time  that  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  American  Climatological  Society. 

1  January  7,  1885,  Vol.  VIII, 

^  Precautions  suggested  by  Dr.  Pepper,  Provost  and  Professor  of  the 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  Event  of  the  Existence  of  Cholera  as  an  Epidemic.      1885, 

4  pp. 

93 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1886 

In  1886  he  was  elected  consulting  physician  to  St.  Chris- 
topher's Hospital  ^  and  President  of  the  American  Clinical 
Association,  and  of  the  Pennsylvania  Sanitary  Convention.^ 
In  February  he  organized  the  Association  of  American 
Physicians. 

His  keen  interest  in  pulmonary  diseases  may  be  explained 
in  part.  His  father,  two  brothers,  and  a  sister  had  died  of 
phthisis,  and  he  himself  had  three  times  had  a  narrow  escape 
from  it.  He  determined  to  investigate  its  nature  and  distribu- 
tion, and  wrote  his  now  celebrated  contribution  on  the  subject, 
"  The  Climatological  Study  of  Phthisis  in  Pennsylvania."  ^ 
It  represents  a  vast  amount  of  patient  research,  and  was  recog- 
nized at  once  as  a  contribution  to  science.  The  interest  it 
provoked  is  illustrated  by  several  letters  he  received. 

"  Walungford,  Pa. 

"  Dear  Pepper  : 

"  It  is  very  late  at  night,  but  I  cannot  lay  me  down  to  sleep 
without  thanking  you  warmly  for  sending  me  this  copy  of  your  Cli- 
matological Study. 

"  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  a  doctor  in  order  to  appreciate  its  high 
medical  value — the  subject  comes  home  to  every  '  breather'  in  the 
world,  whether  he  lives  in  this  State  or  not.  And  any  layman  will 
be  lost  in  admiration  over  the  exhaustive  research  and  the  method- 
ical clearness  which  you  have  shown  throughout.  I  do  sincerely 
congratulate  you  on  the  successful  completion  of  this  great  task.  It 
cannot  but  bring  you  fame  if  you  have  not  reached  the  saturation 
point  therein  long  ago. 

"  Always  faithfully  yours, 

"  Horace  Howard  Furness.  * 

"ao  October,  1887." 

1  February  8,  1886.  ^jviay,  1886. 

'New  York:    D.  Appleton  &  Co.       1887.     pp.77. 
*MS. 

94 


1 


JEt.  43]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

The  Medical  Classic  observed  editorially  : 

"  The  disease  of  consumption,  however  viewed,  is  always  of 
public  interest.  Twenty  years  ago  no  one  knew  of  the  association 
between  pulmonary  consumption  and  the  damp  subsoil ;  but  statis- 
tics have  fully  proved  the  connection.  In  fifteen  English  towns 
recently  recorded  by  Dr.  Simon  the  deaths  from  consumption  fell 
immediately  when  the  subsoil  was  dried  through  a  system  of  drain- 
age. In  Salisbury  the  deaths  from  consumption  fell  49  per  cent., 
in  Ely,  47  per  cent.,  and  Merthyr  Tydvil,  which  gained  least,  had  its 
death-rate  from  consumption  lowered  1 1  per  cent.  From  statistics 
we  know  that  high  mortality  from  consumption  in  the  British  army, 
and  especially  in  the  Guards,  is  due  to  confined  air — a  mortality 
which  has  been  so  affected  by  better  ventilation  of  barracks  that  the 
consumptive  death-rate  fell  in  the  Guards  from  125  in  10,000  in 
the  year  1858  to  16.9  in  the  year  1875  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  deaths 
from  consumption  alone  in  the  Guards  in  1875  was  less  than  a 
seventh  of  the  number  of  1858. 

"  The  researches  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Dr. 
Buchanan,  of  England,  also  strongly  confirm  that  the  comparative 
degree  of  wetness  in  the  soil  is  a  fair  measure  of  the  proportion  of 
consumption  among  the  residents  thereon.  Dr.  Pepper,  of  Phila- 
delphia, attempted  an  investigation  of  the  distribution  of  the  same 
disease  for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and  presented  his  data  and  cer- 
tain conclusions  to  the  Climatological  Association  as  a  contribution 
to  the  climatological  study  of  the  disease.  His  inquiries  were  sent 
to  650  of  the  5,000  physicians  distributed  through  sixty-seven 
counties,  and  replies  were  received  from  120  correspondents  in 
forty-seven  counties.  The  general  deductions  from  the  answers 
are  that  the  localities  having  high  mortality  from  consumption  are 
those  of  little  elevation  and  large  annual  rainfall,  and  that  the  hem- 
lock regions,  which  correspond  quite  closely  with  the  favorable  cli- 
matic regions,  have  the  greatest  immunity.  A  very  small  proportion 
of  the  correspondents  recognize  the  influence  of  special  local  causes 
for  this  disease,  such  as  the  greater  dampness  of  one  house  than 

95 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

another.  The  hereditary  nature  of  the  disease  is  almost  unanimously 
admitted,  while  its  infectious  quality  is  receiving  more  general  recog- 
nition. In  race  the  negroes  seem  the  most  liable  and  the  Jews  the 
most  exempt,  but  there  are  many  other  factors  than  those  of  nation- 
ality to  be  taken  into  account.  Dr.  Pepper  regards  his  paper  '  as  the 
first  crude  and  imperfect  result  of  an  investigation  which  he  hopes 
to  be  able  to  continue  to  a  much  greater  degree  of  completeness.' 
The  address  (for  which  the  author  deserves  the  highest  commenda- 
tion) is  accompanied  with  elaborate  maps,  charts,  and  tables." 

From  his  friend  Dr.  Bowditch,  of  Boston,  came  this  letter  : 

"  Boston,  February  22,  1887. 

"  I  have  read  with  pleasure  and  profit  your  paper  on  the  preva- 
lence of  consumption  in  Pennsylvania. 

"  I  infer  from  your  remarks  (p.  i6)  that  you  do  not  think  damp- 
ness of  the  soil  '  is  the  main  cause  of  consumption'  in  your  State. 
I  think  we  agree  on  this  point,  although  some  may  think  otherwise. 
I  never  claimed  that  it — soil  moisture — was  the  '  main  cause^  but 
only  one  important  cause  of  consumption  in  Massachusetts. 

"  You  will  remember  that  when  I  made  inquiries  I  and  every 
one  else  believed  that  consumption  was  everywhere  equally  and  quite 
prevalent  in  New  England,  but  that  no  special  locality  was  more 
liable  to  it  than  another.  P'acts  sent  by  physicians,  my  corre- 
spondents, convinced  me  that  I  was  wrong  and  that  dampness  of  the 
soil  around  or  under  the  house  was  in  Massachusetts  an  important 
cause  of  its  greater  prevalence  in  some  spots  than  in  others. 

"  Now,  though  your  figures  are  not  so  numerous  as  mine,  it 
seems  to  me  they  point  to  the  same  inference.  On  page  1 6  you  state 
that  but  seven  persons  admit  certain  localities  '  have  any  such 
peculiarities,'  i.e..,  of  greater  moisture,  but  these  speak  of  damp  yards, 
bad  sewerage,  and  low  ground  by  the  river-side.  In  other  words, 
small  and  imperfect  as  your  returns  are  on  this  point,  they  sustain 
my    result.      If  hereafter   you    should    find   a   consumptive  patient 

96 


^T.  43]  PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 

living  in  a  house  with  a  damp  cellar  or  surroundings  which  give 
dampness  necessarily  to  the  house,  your  own  statistics  as  well  as 
mine  and  Dr.  Buchanan's  should  persuade  you  to  require  a  removal 
from  the  house  as  the  first  step  towards  a  cure.  For  years  this  has 
been  my  rule,  and  I  have  sometimes  declined  to  prescribe  any 
medicine  unless  removal  were  promised.  When  for  sundry  im- 
portant reasons  a  person  could  not  move,  I  have  warned  relatives 
and  patient  of  the  danger  incurred.  I  have  felt  so  strongly  on  this 
subject  that,  although  I  have  claimed  (Hygiene  in  America,  p.  119) 
that  it  is  a  '  cosmic'  law,  nevertheless  I  wanted  to  have  the  question 
decided  on  a  broader  basis  by  an  international  commission  to  be 
appointed  by  an  international  congress. 

"  Having  been  invited  to  prepare  a  paper  on  hygiene  for  the 
international  congress  that  is  to  meet  at  Vienna  next  autumn,  I  took 
the  liberty  to  send  my  Massachusetts  address  to  each  one  of  the 
committee  and  to  ask  that  such  a  commission  should  be  appointed  ; 
the  reply  was  '•  Come  yourself  and  present  a  paper  and  it  will  be 
agreeable  to  the  committee,  but  no  subject  can  be  brought  up  unless 
there  is  some  one  to  sustain  it.'  I  replied  that  my  age  and  health 
would  prevent  my  visiting  Vienna  again. 

"  My  dear  Doctor,  why  cannot  you  go,  after  preparing  a  paper 
founded  on  your  own  and  Buchanan's  and  mine  ?  I  wish  you 
would  think  of  this,  what  may  seem  to  you,  Utopian  plan.  But  it 
is  not  so,  and  if  carried  out  thoroughly  and  ably  as  you  could  do  it, 
you  will  learn  many  things  and  stand  before  the  profession  of  the 
world  as  one  able  and  willing  to  work  for  the  common  good  and 
bring  forth  grand  results.  I  send  by  this  mail  a  programme  or 
rather  an  account  of  what  has  been  done  by  the  committee  and  also 
an  analysis  of  it  as  seen  in  the  "Journal  of  Hygiene.  Please  return 
them  to  me  after  examination. 

"  Again  thanking  you  for  your  labors  for  the  whole  of  us,  and 
your  courtesy  to  me,  I  remain, 

"  Sincerely  yours, 

"  Henry  I.  Bowditch." 
7  97 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

In  June  appeared  the  report  of  the  Seybert  Commission, 
of  which  he  was  chairman.^ 

Lord  Playfair,  commenting  on  both  the  Seybert  report 
and  the  paper  on  consumption,  wrote : 

"  Atlantic  Cottage,  Nahant,  23d  September,  1887. 

"  I  duly  received  the  book  and  pamphlet  which  you  sent  to  me. 
The  report  of  the  Seybert  Commission  is  both  instructive  and 
amusing.  For  some  time  I  diligently  attended  seances,  but  I  never 
saw  anything  that  was  not  beneath  contempt.  If  you  have  any 
ascension  of  floating  manifestations,  it  might  be  useful  to  have  a 
mixture  of  chlorate  of  potash  and  sugar,  which  by  touching  with 
a  drop  of  sulphuric  acid  will  give  a  splendid  light  to  counteract  the 
deeds  of  darkness. 

"  Your  paper  on  consumption  is  very  interesting,  and  lays  the 
basis  of  a  further  useful  inquiry.  As  a  former  commissioner  of 
public  health,  I  used  to  connect  phthisis  with  a  double  condition — 
dampness  and  want  of  ventilation.  I  recollect  going  through  the 
R.  C.  College  at  Maynooth.  For  some  reason  the  principal  re- 
jected my  repeated  request  to  see  the  hospital.  I  made  a  bold  ven- 
ture and  said,  *■  Of  course  I  know  your  difficulties  here — consump- 
tion is  your  great  enemy.'  He  admitted  that  it  was  so,  and  asked 
my  reason  for  arriving  at  that  conclusion.  I  told  him  that  it  was 
because  they  had  clay  floors  for  their  lecture  rooms  and  such  a 
strictly  gothic  building  that  they  could  only  open  a  few  panes  for 
ventilation.  These  two  conditions  are  very  common  factors  in 
England.  Of  course  good  ventilation  lessens  the  evil  of  the  second 
factor,  dampness.      I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  this. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"  Lyon  Playfair."  ' 


^  See  the  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Commission  to  the  Trustees 
of  the  University  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Provost  for  the  year 
ending  October  i,  1881,  App.  IV. 

2  MS.  letter. 

98 


JEr.  44]  PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 

The  substance  of  this  work  on  phthisis  he  delivered  as 
the  President's  Address  at  the  third  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Climatological  Association,  held  at  Philadelphia 
on  May  10  and  1 1,  1886. 

A  glimpse  of  Dr.  Pepper  as  a  teacher  of  medicine  is 
afforded  by  the  home  letter  of  a  medical  student,  written 
about  this  time : 

"  Philadelphia,  October  i6,  1886. 

"  *  *  *  I  am  in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  amount  of  work  and 
have  not  been  in  bed  before  one  o'clock  any  night  this  week,  I 
leave  the  dissecting  room  at  ten  p.m.,  then  study  for  three  hours 
and  go  to  bed,  to  get  up  at  eight  a.m.  and  go  to  the  lecture  at 
nine.  I  find  I  can  do  more  work  at  night  than  during  the  day.  I 
am  taking  physiological  lectures  in  shorthand  and  writing  them  out 
in  a  book  afterward.  I  am  also  taking  Pepper's  lectures,  but  I  do 
not  find  time  to  write  them  out.  I  wish  very  often  that  you  could 
hear  him,  it  is  such  a  treat ;  a  regular  feast ;  you  would  enjoy  him 
very  much.  His  clinical  lectures  are  as  interesting,  methodical, 
and  thorough  as  if  committed  to  memory  beforehand.  He  lectures 
without  a  note  of  any  kind  and  uses  the  most  beautiful  and  impres- 
sive English.  He  is  simply  grand.  At  his  clinic  to-day  he  had  a 
case  of  epilepsy.  After  a  careful  study  of  it  he  advised  trephin- 
ing, which  was  done  by  Ashhurst  the  next  hour."  ^ 

After  1886  he  made  fewer  contributions  to  current  medi- 
cal literature.  His  increasing  practice  and  the  multifarious 
interests  in  which  he  was  engaged  left  no  time  for  such 
work.  In  1887  he  made  but  two  contributions  to  the 
medical  journals,  one  a  case  of  "  Duodenal  Ulcer,"  which 
appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences ;  the  other,  on 
"  Diseases  of  the  Caecal  Region,"  published  in  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical  Society. 


^  MS.  letter.     The  student's  home  was  in  Indiana. 
99 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

A  glance  at  his  activities  during  the  years  1881-1887, 
briefly  recorded  in  this  chapter,  cannot  fail  to  suggest  his 
extraordinary  capacity  for  work.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  exacting  duties  of  his  profession  were  performed 
amidst  his  equally  exacting  duties  as  Provost  of  the  Univer- 
sity and  as  a  citizen  and  man  of  affairs.  Great  as  was  his 
professional  work  during  these  years,  it  became  greater  and 
more  exacting  during  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life. 


100 


^T.  44]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

V 

PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 
1887-1898 

DR.  PEPPER  was  not  a  specialist  in  the  practice  of 
medicine :  he  was  a  general  practitioner.  In  esti- 
mating his  place  in  his  profession,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  the  tendency  in  medical  science,  since 
1850,  has  been  towards  specialization,  at  least  in  large  cities 
and  towns.  It  is  the  country  doctor  who  is  the  general 
practitioner,  "  the  all-round  physician,"  as  a  familiar  provin- 
cialism expresses  it.  Dr.  Pepper's  practice  was  extraordi- 
nary in  its  volume,  in  its  geographical  distribution,  and  in 
its  returns.  It  is  difficult  to  measure  a  physician  by  any 
one  test,  indeed  it  is  quite  unfair ;  yet  there  are  well-known 
marks  which  distinguish  the  great  physician.  Dr.  Pepper 
possessed  all  of  these.  His  case-books,  ponderous  folios  of 
about  a  thousand  pages  each,  increased  in  number  as  the 
years  passed  far  out  of  proportion  to  his  physical  strength. 
Patients  came  to  him  from  all  parts  of  America,  north  and 
south,  and  occasionally  from  Europe.  Yet  not  all  his  cases 
are  reported  in  his  books.  His  consulting  practice  was 
very  great,  and  to  respond  to  its  demands  was  at  times 
beyond  his  power.  His  office  was  crowded  with  patients 
daily,  and  his  medical  correspondence  was  quite  sufficient 
to  fill  the  time  of  his  secretary.  It  must  be  remembered, 
too,  that  his  professional  work  was  never  subordinated  to 
any  other  of  the  many  pressing  interests  in  which  he  was 
concerned.     He  remained  to  the  end  essentially  the  great 

101 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

physician.  As  the  years  fled  by  he  yearned  for  the  repose 
which  would  permit  him  to  pursue  scientific  investigation, 
for  which  by  nature  he  was  pecuharly  well  fitted.  His 
wonderful  power  of  analysis  was  the  secret  of  his  immense 
success  in  life.  His  capacity  to  compare,  to  distinguish,  to 
define,  was  in  no  sense  a  matter  of  acquisition ;  it  was  his 
birthright.  The  scientific  habit  which  he  followed  in  inves- 
tigating an  obscure  medical  case  stood  him  in  equal  value 
when  examining  a  problem  in  political  economy  or  in  uni- 
versity administration.  It  is  so  unusual  for  a  great  medi- 
cal man  to  be  active  in  several  departments  of  human 
affairs  that  we  are  apt  to  forget,  in  writing  of  William  Pep- 
per the  physician,  that  he  at  the  same  time  was  equally 
active  as  an  educator  and  as  a  public-spirited  citizen. 

In  May,  1888,  he  delivered  an  address  before  the  Medical 
Association  at  Cincinnati,  on  "  New  Methods  of  Diagnosis 
in  Gastric  Diseases ;"  and  in  June  an  address  on  "  Albu- 
minosis  "  before  the  State  Medical  Society  of  Pennsylvania 
which  met  that  year  in  Philadelphia.  In  the  September 
number  of  the  University  Medical  Magazine  there  appeared 
a  brief  paper  by  him  on  "  Cardiocentesis."  His  cUnical 
lectures,  which  he  was  delivering  twice  a  week,  were 
reported  in  the  Medical  Bulletin,  but  were  now  seldom 
reprinted  by  him  in  pamphlet  form,  as  they  had  been  in 
earlier  years.  An  interesting  symposium  in  which  he  par- 
ticipated occurred  in  December,  1887,  and  was  reported 
in  the  Transactions  of  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical 
Society.^ 


^  Pericaecal  Inflammation :  Pathology,  by  John  M.  Musser, 
M.D.  ;  Diagnosis,  by  William  Pepper,  M.D.  ;  Treatment,  by 
Thomas  G.  Morton,  M.D.     Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of 

102 


^T.  45]  PHYSICIAN   AND   WRITER 

In  January,  1888,  he  received  notice  of  his  election  as 
consulting  physician  of  the  Northern  Dispensary  of  Phila- 
delphia, an  institution  founded  in  1816  for  the  medical 
relief  of  the  poor.^  Elections  of  this  kind  come  to  all  emi- 
nent physicians,  for  the  poor  are  always  with  us.  Dr.  Pep- 
per's gratuitous  practice  was  very  great;  indeed,  it  was  quite 
enough  to  keep  one  man  busy.  He  was  never  known  to 
decline  attention  to  the  poor,  and  on  many  occasions  it  was 
observed  that  he  took  extraordinary  care  to  minister  to 
charity  patients. 

During  the  summer  of  1888  his  name  had  prominence 
among  the  people  because  of  his  association  in  the  case 
of  General  Sheridan.  The  general  was  taken  seriously  ill 
early  in  the  season,  and  Dr.  Pepper  was  called  in  as  con- 
sulting physician.  His  own  memoranda  of  the  case  are 
fragmentary,  but  interesting : 

"July  5. 

''  Up  at  6.00  A.M. — bath — dress — breakfast — in  office  at  seven 
— consultation  in  office  continuously  until  4.30  p.m.,  with  excep- 
tion of  a  committee  from  Johns  Hopkins  on  organization  of  Hos- 
pital from  11.00  to  12.00  and  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
from  12.00  to  1.30 — train  to  Sea  Girt  5.00  p.m.  Drove  to 
Asbury  Park  to  meet  Dr.  Wilder  in  the  case  of  Hon.  H.  B,  Den- 
man  at  9.00  P.M.  (parancentesis  abdomini) — found  telegram  call- 
ing me  to  see  General  Sheridan,  then  at  Delaware  Breakwater  on  a 
man-of-war,  Siuataro.  Wired  to  have  special  train  sent  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Asbury  at  11,  and  wired  to  have  tender  at  Cape  May, 
twelve  miles  across  the  bay  to  Delaware  Breakwater,  at  3.00  a.m. 


the    Philadelphia    County  Medical   Society,    December    14,    1887. 
Philadelphia  :   William  J.  Dornan,  Printer.      1888.      19  pp. 

*  MS.  letter  from  John  L.  Davis,  Secretary,  to  Dr.  Pepper,  Jan- 
uary 24,  1888. 

103 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

Started  from  Asbury  at  11. 10,  reached  Camden  1.30,  then  to  Cape 
May,  ninety  miles,  3.30 — drove  three  miles  out  to  Cape  May  Point 
at  4.00  A.M. — no  boat — misunderstanding — back  to  Cape  May — 
awakened  telegraph  operator,  wired  via  Philadelphia  to  send  tender 
at  once — dress — breakfast — drove  out  again,  tender  there  at  6 — 
reached  steamer  at  7.15 — consultation — Sheridan  much  confused  in 
mind,  but  recognized  me — showed  pleasure — left  at  8.30 — Cape 
May  9.451  special  train  off  at  10.00,  in  Philadelphia  at  12.30. 
Consultation  until  2.00  p.m.,  train  to  New  York  and  6.30  to 
Westport — arrived  4.00  a.m.,  and  drove  home  by  East  Hill,  thirty 
miles." 

General  Sheridan  was  removed  to  his  home  in  Washing- 
ton, and  was  visited  regularly  by  Dr.  Pepper.  The  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  during  this  time  made  up  a  "  special"  for 
him,  consisting  of  a  common  travelling  coach,  which  was 
weighed  down  at  each  end  with  piles  of  steel  rails,  thus  in- 
suring steadiness.  Dr.  Pepper  was  accustomed  to  board  the 
car  at  Broad  Street  Station  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing; the  road  was  cleared  to  Washington  and  in  four  hours 
he  was  at  the  bedside  of  his  patient.  After  the  consultation 
he  was  brought  back  in  the  same  train,  arriving  about  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  in  time  to  take  up  the  duties  of 
the  day. 

Of  his  distinguished  patient  he  made  the  following  mem- 
oranda : 

"  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan  was  the  beau  ideal  of  a  cavalry  leader. 
He  never  commanded  a  large  army,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  he 
would  have  succeeded.  He  had  the  qualities  which  enable  a  man 
to  lead  soldiers  to  the  cannon's  mouth,  an  element  incalculable — 
majestic  heroism  to  produce  apparently  impossible  results.  His  ill- 
ness was  not  wanting  in  dramatic  interest.  He  lived  well,  ate  and 
drank    freely,   took   little   exercise ;    had    mitral    lesion.       He  was 

104 


^T.  45]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

warned,  but  paid  no  heed,  and  finally  in  May,  1888,  went  West  to 
inspect  army  posts — travelled  six  or  seven  nights — tramped  about 
all  day — went  to  public  dinners,  breakfasts — returned  to  Wash- 
ington with  broken  constitution  and  soon  had  symptoms  of  heart 
failure.  I  was  summoned  to  consult  with  his  four  army  doctors 
after  an  attack  of  pulmo-embolism,  almost  fatal.  He  lived  for 
three  months — had  frequent  alarming  spells,  finally  died  suddenly. 
The  popular  interest  in  his  case  was  extraordinary — the  press  de- 
voted much  space — reporters  haunted  the  house  ;  here,  as  in  similar 
cases  it  often  occurs,  the  medical  bulletins  had  to  be  cautiously 
worded.  A  bill  was  introduced  in  Congress  to  revive  the  grade  of 
General  with  the  view  of  his  being  elevated  to  it.  Opposition  ex- 
isted on  the  part  of  some  Southern  members,  but  official  statement 
of  his  desperate  condition  averted  it,  and  the  bill  was  passed  under 
suspension  of  the  rules.  It  was  carried  instantly  to  the  President, 
who  signed  it  and  at  once  sent  a  message  to  the  Senate  appointing 
Sheridan  to  the  office.  It  was  confirmed  and  the  commission 
reached  Sheridan  that  evening,  and  he  issued  his  first  orders." 

In  September  Colonel  Michael  V.  Sheridan,  the  general's 
brother,  and  an  executor  of  his  estate,  sent  the  following 
letter  to  Dr.  Pepper : 

"  MoQuiTT,  Mass.,  September  28,  1888. 

"  By  authority  of  the  executors  of  the  estate  of  the  late  General 
Sheridan,  I  write  to  ask  if  you  will  please  send  me  your  bill  for  pro- 
fessional services  while  attending  General  Sheridan  as  consulting 
physician  at  various  times  between  the  middle  of  May  and  August 
5,  1888."^ 

Dr.  Pepper  had  already  decided  on  his  course,  and  in  fol- 
lowing it  observed  all  his  customary  grace  and  delicacy  in 
treating  a  difficult  subject.     He  drafted  the  following  reply 

^  MS.  letter. 

105 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

to  Colonel  Sheridan's  letter  and  submitted  it  to  him  before 
it  was  formally  sent : 

"  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  note  of  September  28th,  to  forward  you 
my  account  for  professional  services  rendered  in  consultation  to  the 
late  General  Sheridan.  You  must  permit  me  to  say  that  I  desire 
these  services  to  be  regarded  only  as  an  expression  of  that  deep  and 
lasting  obligation  which  I,  in  common  with  all  others,  owed  to  him. 
In  view  of  the  extremely  limited  pecuniary  resources  of  his  family, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  render  an  account  for  these  services  such 
as  would  be  proper  under  other  circumstances. 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  William  Pepper."  ^ 

"  My  dear  Dr.  Pepper,"  wrote  Colonel  Sheridan  in  reply ,^  "  I 
thank  you  from  the  depths  of  my  heart,  not  only  for  this  kind  act 
towards  Mrs.  Sheridan  and  her  children,  but  also  for  the  devotion 
you  exhibited  towards  my  brother  during  his  lifetime,  and  your 
untiring  efforts  to  keep  him  with  us.  Never  was  any  man  more 
skilfully  treated  than  General  Sheridan  by  you  and  all  his  physi- 
cians, and  though  no  human  agency  could  save  him,  his  family  have 
the  comfort  of  knowing  that  no  means  within  the  possibilities  of 
science  were  left  untried."  ^ 

The  press,  far  and  wide,  commented  on  Dr.  Pepper's  con- 
duct.* One  paper  recited  the  history  of  the  case,  and  ob- 
served that  Dr.  Pepper's  letter  was  "  worthy  of  publication 
in  every  paper  in  the  United  States."     Another  declared  that 


1  MS.  letter  to  Colonel  Michael  Sheridan,  September  28  (?),  1888. 
It  was  given  to  the  public  October  3,  and  bears  that  date. 

2  MS.  letter.  3  ^g^  jg^^j.^ 

*  Notably   the  Western  papers,  and  especially  those  of  General 
Sheridan's  native  State. 

106 


JEt.  45]  PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 

the  gratitude  of  every  loyal  soldier  would  hold  Dr.  Pepper  in 
remembrance. 

A  few  days  after  the  publication  of  Dr.  Pepper's  letter,  an 
incident  occurred  in  New  York  which  illustrates  the  wide 
reputation  and  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  the  public  at 
this  time.  His  cousin,  Mr.  William  Piatt  Pepper,  of  Phila- 
delphia, was  obliged  to  return  to  Philadelphia  from  Long 
Island  to  attend  to  some  business  matters  of  importance. 
On  leaving  the  Long  Island  depot  in  New  York  he  took  a 
cab  for  Desbrosses  Street  ferry.  It  was  the  first  Monday  in 
September,  and  happened  to  be  the  first  Labor  Day.  When 
he  reached  Union  Square  he  found  Broadway  blocked  to  all 
ordinary  traffic  by  a  large  parade.  Calh'ng  a  polireman  to 
the  cab  window  Mr.  Pepper  asked  him  if  it  was  not  possible 
for  him  to  be  allowed  to  pass  through,  as  he  was  anxious  to 
reach  his  destination.  The  reply  was  that  only  the  horse- 
cars  were  allowed  to  pass,  and  then  at  every  half  hour ;  that 
the  parade  had  just  begun  and  would  be  upward  of  four 
hours  in  passing.  Mr.  Pepper  looked  somewhat  aghast  at 
this  prospect,  but  said  nothing.  The  policeman  asked  him 
his  name,  and  Mr.  Pepper  replied  that  as  he  was  not  a  New 
York  man  that  would  be  of  no  use  to  him  ;  however,  his 
name  was  Pepper  and  he  lived  in  Philadelphia.  The  officer 
immediately  reported  the  case  to  the  Chief  of  Police,  who 
promptly  came  to  the  cab,  and,  touching  his  hat,  said  :  "  Go 
right  through,  Doctor,"  and  stopped  the  parade  for  the 
moment  to  allow  the  cab  to  pass. 

The  medical  publications  for  the  year  1 889  were  an  article 
on  "  Functional  Disorders  of  the  Stomach,"  for  Keating's 
"  Cyclopaedia  of  the  Diseases  of  Children ;"  on  "  Duodenal 
and  Gastric  Ulcers,"  originally  a  clinical  lecture  at  the  Uni- 
versity Hospital,  which  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  Amer- 

107 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

tcan  Medical  Association  for  May ;  ^  and  two  others  reprinted, 
— one  on  "Multiple  Cardiac  Lesion,"^  the  other  "A  few 
Practical  Remarks  on  Continued  Slight  Fever."  ^  In  June 
he  delivered  an  address  before  the  American  Medical  Associ- 
ation at  its  meeting  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island.*  He  chose 
as  his  theme  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  in  whom  he  recognized 
the  incarnation  of  a  kindred  spirit.  ^ 

This  address  was  based  upon  a  thorough  study  of  material 
on  Dr.  Rush,  of  which  there  is  a  great  mass  in  the  Philadel- 
phia Library,  the  magnificent  Ridgway  Branch  of  which  is 
Rush's  mausoleum.  Considering  the  enormous  pressure 
under  which  Dr.  Pepper  always  worked,  the  address  is  a 
marvel  in  style,  scope,  and  effectiveness.  It  remains  the  best 
account  of  the  condition  of  medicine  in  America  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  and  thus  possesses  historical  value.  As 
usual  with  his  occasional  addresses,  it  attracted  wide  atten- 


^  May  25,  1889,  and  reprinted  in  pamphlet  form.  Duodenal 
and  Gastric  Ulcers,  by  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Provost  and 
Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine,  University  of 
Pennsylvania.  Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical 
Association^  May  25,  1889.  Chicago:  Printed  at  the  office  of  the 
Association.      1889.      16  pp. 

^  A  clinical  lecture,  University  Medical  Magazine^  September, 
1889. 

3  Id.,  December,  1889.  ^June  26,  1889. 

^  Benjamin  Rush,  by  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Provost  and 
Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania ;  an  Address  delivered  before  the  American  Medical 
Association  at  its  annual  meeting  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  June, 
1889.  Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Associ- 
ation^ April  26,  1889.  Chicago  :  Printed  at  the  office  of  the  Asso- 
ciation.     1890.      24  pp. 

108 


JEr.  46]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

tion  and  brought  him  many  letters  of  congratulation.  Of 
personal  interest  was  a  letter  from  the  grandson  of  Dr.  Rush, 
appreciativ^e  of  the  address.^ 

In  January,  1890,  he  delivered  before  the  New  York 
Pathological  Society  the  Middleton-Goldsmith  lectures, 
taking  for  his  subject  "  Hepatic  Fever."  From  a  literary 
point  these  rank  among  the  best  of  his  medical  lectures.^ 
His  clinical  lectures  on  "  Locomotor  Ataxia  "  appeared  in 
the  Philadelphia  Medical  Times  in  March. ^  In  April,  before 
the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine,  he  delivered  an  address 
on  the  "  Frequency  and  Character  of  the  Pneumonia  of 
1890."*  In  May,  at  Washington,  D.  C,  before  the  Asso- 
ciation of  American  Physicians,  of  which  he  was  President, 
he  read  a  paper,  the  joint  work  of  himself  and  Dr.  J.  P. 
Crozer  Griffith,  on  "  Aneurism  of  the  Aorta  Rupturing  into 
the  Superior  Vena  Cava."^ 

To  the  world  he  seemed  the  embodiment  of  unlimited 
energy,  but  those  who  knew  him  intimately  were  aware  of 
the  risks  he  was  taking  in  his  prodigious  activity.  The 
following  letter,  with  its  transcript  of  Dr.  Pepper's  endorse- 
ment, is  pertinent  at  this  time : 

"  Wallingford. 

"  Dear  Pepper  : 

"  I  have  been  worried  by  what  my  boy  and  young  Lieber  have 
told  me  about  your  stopping  '  t'other  day'  in  the  middle  of  a  sen- 


^  Richard  Henry  Rush  to  Dr.  Pepper,  June  28,  1880.      MS. 

^January  15,  1890.     They  were  published  in  pamphlet  form. 

3  March,  1890. 

*  April   17,  1890.      Reprinted   from  the  Medical  Netus^  July   5, 
1890.      16  pp. 

^  May,  1890.     Reprinted  from  the  American  Journal  of  the  Medical 
Sciences^  October,  1890.      31  pp. 

109 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1891 

tence  at  your  clinic,  and  after  a  pause  calling  for  a  glass  of  water. 
It  worried  them  and  all  their  class,  and,  as  I  have  said,  it  has  much 
worried  me. 

"  Do,  do,  do  take  care  ! 

"  Be  far  more  vigilant  for  yourself  than  for  any  of  your  patients  j 
there  is  no  life  entrusted  to  you  as  valuable  as  your  own. 

"  All  things  have  a  beginning,  and  you,  of  all  men,  know  how 
very  small  may  be  the  beginning  of  that  which  may  end  most 
lamentably. 

"  Be  warned  !     'Tis    far  better   to  cut  off  some  of  your  work 
voluntarily  than  to  have  it  all  cut  off  perforce. 
"  Always  faithfully  yours, 

"  Horace  Howard  Furness.^ 

"15  October,  '90." 

On  the  back  of  this  note  Dr.  Pepper  wrote : 

"  At  the  close  of  my  clinical  lecture  I  had  one  of  those  funny 
little  contractions  of  the  throat  caused  by  undue  use  of  the  voice, 
which  made  me  stop  for  a  moment,  then  I  finished  my  sentence. 

Foila  tout." 

Now,  in  truth,  Dr.  Pepper  was  beginning  to  break  down ; 
but  if  he  knew  it,  he  gave  his  thought  no  tongue. 

In  September,  1891,  the  Association  of  American  Physi- 
cians held  its  sixth  annual  session  in  Washington,  D.  C. 
Dr.  Pepper's  address  before  it  as  its  President  contains  the 
following  noble  tribute  to  Joseph  Leidy : 

"  In  the  death  of  Joseph  Leidy,  which  occurred  on  April  30, 
1890,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight  years,  the  medical  profession  in 
America  lost  its  most  loved  and  honored  member,  and  American 
science  its  most  illustrious  representative.  It  makes  a  difference 
to  the  world  when  such  a  man  passes  away.     At  his  birth  Nature 

'  MS.  letter. 

no 


JEt.  48]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

gave  him  her  accolade,  and  all  his  life  long  he  was  loyal  to  the  holy- 
quest  of  truth,  which  is  the  vow  imposed  on  those  whom  she 
invests  as  her  chosen  knights.  Who  can  say  how  much  of  the 
marvellous  and  inexhaustible  knowledge  of  Nature  this  great  man 
possessed  came  from  the  singleness  of  his  life  and  the  purity  of  his 
heart  ?  Who  can  say  how  many  of  the  miserable  shortcomings 
we  all  exhibit,  even  in  our  best  work,  spring  from  the  selfishness 
and  the  prejudice  we  allow  to  mix  with  it  ?  Leidy  never  had  a 
theory  to  support  or  a  purpose  to  serve.  The  all-sufficing  motive 
of  his  life  was  to  learn  the  truth  of  Nature  and  to  help  others  to 
learn  it  also.  To  the  last  he  kept  the  humility  and  the  simplicity 
of  a  little  child.  No  delight  could  surpass  what  he  felt  when  new 
facts  were  disclosed  to  him,  unless  it  were  that  with  which  he 
would  share  with  others  all  he  knew.  He  made  great  discoveries 
in  various  fields  of  scientific  research  ;  but  he  never  seemed  to  feel 
any  credit  was  due  to  him.  It  merely  was  that  he  had  chanced 
first  to  see  that  particular  fact.  It  was  no  achievement  of  his. 
Nature  had  given  him  one  more  little  glimpse  of  her  truth.  He 
looked  at  all  natural  things  with  the  same  fresh,  clear-eyed  direct- 
ness. It  did  not  matter  by  whom,  or  under  what  names,  or  in 
what  surroundings  an  object  was  brought  before  him  ;  he  simply 
saw  the  thing  itself.  In  this  way  he  detected  blunders  innumerable 
and  became  a  general  referee  to  whom  all  sorts  of  supposed 
remarkable  discoveries  were  submitted.  The  certainty  with  which 
he  could  detect  the  real  nature  of  the  object  and  the  simple,  genial 
way  in  which  he  would  explain  it  made  irritation  impossible.  All 
knew  he  would  treat  an  inaccurate  observation  of  his  own  in  the 
same  kindly  but  unsparing  fashion. 

"  If  only  the  facts  were  discovered,  it  mattered  not  to  him  by 
whom  the  discovery  was  made ;  and  windy  battles  over  claims  of 
priority  or  selfish  struggles  to  pre-empt  fields  of  investigation  were 
alike  impossible  to  him.  More  than  once  he  turned  aside  from 
lines  of  research  in  which  he  was  the  pioneer,  and  where  brilliant 
discoveries  were  in  sight,  as  soon  as  he  found  there  were  others  who 

III 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1891 

longed  to  win  distinction  in  the  same  field.     I  could  never  see  that 
he  enjoyed  their  triumphs  any  less  than  if  he  himself  had  won  them. 

"  Incapable  himself  of  jealousy  or  untruth  or  disloyalty,  he 
seemed  also  incapable  of  thinking  evil  of  others.  In  all  matters  of 
business  he  would  have  been  readily  imposed  upon,  and  his  confi- 
dence was  freely  bestowed  on  all  who  sought  it.  But  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  scientific  value  of  a  man's  work  he  was  in  many  lines 
of  research  the  very  highest  and  the  most  candid  authority. 

"  Of  course  he  had  no  enemies.  All  were  united  in  respect  and 
affection  for  him.  But  only  those  who  lived  in  close  and  frequent 
intercourse  with  him  can  tell  what  elevating  and  humanizing 
influences  this  man  of  science  diffused  around  him.  It  helped  you 
to  be  truthful,  simple,  and  liberal  merely  to  meet  him  and  talk  with 
him.  I  think  few  men  have  been  more  loved  by  men  than  he  was  ; 
and  I  know  not  if  there  be  a  higher  tribute  than  this  to  a  man's 
nature.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  tell  what  Leidy  achieved  in  many 
branches  of  science.  The  mere  fact  that  his  scientific  contribu- 
tions numbered  fully  eight  hundred  conveys  little  idea  of  the  range 
of  subjects  they  covered  ;  the  epoch-making  character  many  of  them 
possessed ;  or  the  enormous  amount  of  patient  labor  bestowed  on 
the  thousands  of  exquisite  illustrations  they  contained.  I  cannot 
tell  you  what  he  was  to  his  colleagues  or  to  his  students  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  where  for  thirty-eight  years  he  filled 
the  Chair  of  Anatomy.  I  feel  sure  that  every  colleague  in  the 
faculty  and  every  student  in  the  college  during  that  long  time  was 
influenced  for  good  by  contact  with  this  pure  and  lovable  man. 
For  to  Leidy  the  ever-growing  fulness  of  knowledge  brought  in- 
creasing humility  and  wonder  at  the  boundless  mystery  of  Nature. 
And  as  the  close  of  a  profound  study  of  one  after  another  field  of 
natural  history  added  to  his  sense  of  the  inadequacy  of  our  powers 
to  cope  with  the  problems  of  creation  and  life,  his  feeling  of  the 
necessity  of  a  God  of  Nature  strengthened  and  deepened.  Only  a 
few  days  before  his  death,  as  I  stood  by  his  bedside,  he  chanced  to 
notice  the  flowered  pattern  of  the  carpet  on  the  chamber  floor,  and 

112 


JEr.  48]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

said  :  '  How  can  they  work  flowers  on  a  carpet !  We  love  flowers  ! 
No  one  would  tread  on  flowers  !'  And  with  his  heart  full  of  such 
gentle  thoughts  he  lapsed  into  peaceful  unconsciousness — like  a  tired 
child  falling  asleep  in  the  bosom  of  Nature  he  had  loved  so  long  and 
so  well."  1 


It  is  not  strange  that  Dr.  Pepper,  who  had  known  Leidy 
all  his  life,  had  been  a  student  under  him  in  the  medical 
school  and  had  been  associated  with  him  in  academic  rela- 
tions many  years,  ever  finding  him  willing  to  co-operate  in 
every  effort  towards  reform  and  improvement,  should  have 
uttered  these  words. 

The  American  Medical  Association,  in  whose  origin  and 
growth  Dr.  Pepper  had  taken  a  prominent  part,  had  strength- 
ened with  the  years,  and  he  with  others  was  planning  its 
larger  usefulness.  True  to  his  ruling  principle  of  concen- 
trating all  efforts,  he  strenuously  and  successfully  labored  to 
bring  the  Association  into  union  with  analogous  bodies,  a 
service  he  could  more  easily  perform  as  Chairman  of  the 
Executive  Committee.  The  noble  aims  which  he  pursued 
inspired  his  associates,  and  the  plan  of  action  which  he 
outlined  at  the  September  meeting  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee met  with  general  approval  among  the  physicians  and 
surgeons  of  the  country. 

In  October  came  a  crowning  honor  of  medical  prefer- 
ment— his  unanimous    election    as    President    of  the    Pan- 


*  Address  of  the  President  of  the  Association  of  American  Phy- 
sicians, by  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D,  Provost  and  Professor 
of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine,  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, September  22,  1891.  Reprinted  from  the  University  Medical 
Magaziney  October,  1891.  4  pp. 
8  113 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

American  Medical  Congress,  to  be  held  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, in  October,  1893.^ 

In  January,  1 892,  occurred  the  death  of  his  lifelong  friend. 
Dr.  Bowditch,  Dean  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  Dr. 
Pepper's  letter  to  Dr.  Alfred  Stille,  announcing  the  loss, 
provoked  a  reply  which  is  of  interest  as  a  summary  of  im- 
portant incidents  in  the  history  of  American  medicine,  and 
particularly  because  of  its  reference  to  that  group  of  young 
Americans  to  which  the  elder  Pepper  and  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  belonged  when  they  studied  together  in  Paris  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century. 

"January  27,  1892. 

"  I  read  with  great  interest  your  note  to  me  on  the  death  of  Dr. 
Bowditch.  Your  estimate  of  his  character  corresponds  in  every 
respect  with  my  own.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  one  could 
completely  misread  his  transparent  simplicity,  or  fail  to  respect  his 
views  even  when  not  agreeing  with  him.  Of  late  years  I  had  only 
rare  occasions  to  communicate  with  him  even  by  letter,  and  I  do 
not  think  I  have  seen  him  since  the  Centennial  year,  when  he  and 
his  son  Vincent  were  my  guests.  In  a  recent  letter,  in  response  to 
my  estimate  of  his  father,  Vincent  says  :  '  His  nature  was  a  very  rare 
one,  the  combination  of  wonderful  sweetness  with  great  thought 
of  purpose  and  determination  to  fight  for  the  right.'  He  was 
singular  in  this  that  the  positiveness  of  his  opinions  and  the  earnest- 
ness of  their  expression  seem  never  to  have  brought  him  into  col- 
lision with  his  opponents,  or  to  have  engendered  their  enmity. 

"  Bowditch,  James  Jackson,  Holmes,  and  Fisher  were  the  very 
first  to  set  the  example  to  American  students  of  perfecting  their 
medical  education  in  Paris,  and  so  became  the  foster-parents  of 
Gerhard,  Pennock,  Swett,  Poiner,  the  elder    Pepper,    and    Clark, 


1  MS.  letter  from  Charles  A.  L.  Reed,  M.D.,  Chairman  of 
Committee  on  Permanent  Organization  of  the  Inter-Continental 
American  Medical  Congress,  October  20,  1891. 

114 


JEt.  49]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

who  with  them  were  apostles  of  the  school  of  Louis  in  this  country, 
and  to  this  day  '  The  Medical  Society  of  Observation,'  founded  by 
Bowditch  in  Boston,  on  the  pattern  of  Louis,  still  preserves  the 
name  of  the  method  of  the  illustrious  master.  All  of  Bowditch's 
work  bears  the  marks  of  his  Parisian  training. 

"  To    me,   as    an    almost    lifelong    friend  of  his,  your  words  of 
eulogy  on  his  character  and  career  are  very  grateful. 
"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"Alfred  Stille."  ^ 

At  the  invitation  of  Charles  Kendall  Adams,  LL.D.,'^ 
editor  in  chief  of  Johnson's  Revised  Cyclopaedia,  Dr.  Pepper, 
in  January,  1892,  accepted  the  position  of  editor  of  the 
Department  of  Medicine,  Surgery,  and  Collateral  Science. 
His  only  medical  contribution  during  the  year  was  an 
article,  originally  a  clinical  lecture,  which  appeared  in  the 
International  Medical  Magazine  for  February.^ 

The  leading  physicians  of  the  world  had  planned  for  a 
meeting  of  the  eleventh  International  Medical  Congress  at 
Rome,  in  1893.  Dr.  Pepper  was  a  member  of  the  National 
Committee  of  North  America.*  In  December  he  received 
notice  of  his  unanimous  election  as  Chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Third  Congress  of  American  Phy- 
sicians and  Surgeons.^ 

^  MS.  letter.  ^  y[Q^   letter  to  Dr.  Pepper,  January  19,  1892. 

^  Abscess  of  the  Posterior  Mediastinum,  with  Cyanosis  and 
Subcutaneous  Emphysema ;  Venesection  ;  Recovery  by  Discharge 
through  the  Lung.  Clinical  lecture  delivered  at  the  University  Hos- 
pital by  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  Provost  and  Professor  of  the  Theory 
and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania;  Reprint. 

*  MS.  letter  from  Professor  E.  Maraglino,  M.D.,  Secretary- 
General,  Genoa,  October  14,  1892. 

^  MS.  letter  from  N.  M.  Shaffer,  Secretary,  December  28,  1892. 

"5 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

The  first  volume  of  his  "  Text- Book  of  Medicine  by 
American  Teachers"  appeared  in  1893.  Like  the  "System 
of  Medicine,"  it  was  a  composite  treatise,  and  was  eagerly 
received  by  students  and  physicians.  The  new  volume 
pleased  even  the  critics,  as  the  reports  in  July  showed. 
"  It  is  a  great  success  in  England  and  on  the  Continent  as 
well  as  here,"  wrote  Dr.  Pepper  to  a  friend,  "  and  the  second 
volume,  which  goes  to  the  printer  in  September,  must  be 
better."^ 

His  clinical  lectures  were  reported  as  usual,  and  one,  on 
"  Some  Unusual  Types  of  Pneumonia,"  was  reprinted  in 
April  from  the  University  Medical  Magazine. 

In  September  the  first  Pan-American  Medical  Congress 
assembled  in  Washington,  and  he  delivered  the  presidential 
address.  He  had  prepared  it  with  great  care.  It  surpasses 
most  of  his  public  utterances  in  style  and  learning  and 
remains  his  finest  and  most  complete  public  utterance.'^ 

''  I  have  just  finished  reading,  in  the  New  York  Medical  'Journal., 
your  most  interesting  address,"  wrote  Dr.  Lewis  A.  Sayre,  of  New 
York,  "  before  the  Pan-American  Medical  Congress,  and  as  an 
American  physician  I  wish  to  return  you  my  most  sincere  thanks 
for  this  most  able  and  scholarly  production.  It  will  do  more  to 
establish  the  reputation  for  American  medical  science  throughout 
the  world  than  any  paper  yet  produced  by  any  member  of  our  pro- 


^  MS.  letter  July  25,  1893. 

^  An  Address  before  the  First  Pan-American  Medical  Congress, 
September  6,  1893,  i"  ^^  City  of  Washington,  D.  C,  by  the 
President  of  the  Congress,  WilHam  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Provost 
and  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia :  Allen,  Lane  h  Scott's 
Printing  House,  229,  231,  233  South  Fifth  Street.     1893.     34  PP- 

116 


^T.  50]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

fession,  and  the  whole  profession  owe  you  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  it. 
If  no  other  good  was  done,  your  address  alone  will  amply  com- 
pensate for  all  the  time  and  labor  of  calling  the  Congress  together."  ^ 

"  I  have  just  read  your  Pan-American  address,"  wrote  the  Bishop 
of  Albany,  a  very  dear  friend,  the  Right  Reverend  William  Cros- 
well  Doane,  "  with  very  much  interest  and  admiration.  It  is  run- 
ning over  with  new  thoughts  freshly  put  and  with  facts  which  are 
new  to  me ;  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  find  a  busy  man  putting  pro- 
fessional subjects  in  so  large  a  way.  Thank  you  very  much  for 
sending  it  to  me."  ^ 

"  I  have  read  it  with  much  interest,"  wrote  the  venerable  Dr.  Alfred 
Stille  ;  "  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  all  convictions  of  educated  and 
honest  men  tend  to  hasten  the  approach  of  that  '  brotherhood  of 
man'  about  which  we  hear  so  much  more  than  we  see  in  the  con- 
duct of  affairs."  ^ 

The  Medical  Congress  was  a  great  success.  Delegates 
from  every  American  country  were  present  and  were  enter- 
tained in  sumptuous  style.  The  programme  of  the  Congress 
was  arranged  almost  to  the  minutest  detail  by  Dr.  Pepper. 
The  whole  affair,  however,  was  full  of  petty  and  annoying 
incidents.  Dr.  Pepper  spent  the  summer  at  Northeast  Har- 
bor, Maine,  and  there  received  innumerable  letters  and  dis- 
patches relating  to  the  Congress.  A  part  of  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  delegates,  as  planned,  consisted  in  an  observation 
excursion  to  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  possibly  to  Boston. 
This  meant  special  arrangements  with  several  railroad  com- 
panies for  trains,  fare,  and  service.  As  usual,  there  were 
members  of  the  committee  who  insisted  on  ridiculous  luxu- 


^  MS.  letter  September  10,  1893. 
2  MS.  letter  September  29,  1893. 
'  MS.  letter  October  25,  1893. 
117 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1893 

ries  for  which  they  would  not  have  to  pay,  but  the  expense 
of  which  must  come  out  of  a  fund  subscribed  by  the  pro- 
jectors of  the  Congress,  chief  of  whom  was  Dr.  Pepper. 
Writing  of  the  Congress  to  a  friend  who  had  helped  him 
to  secure  transportation  for  the  members,  he  says : 

"  The  trunk-line  committee  granted  us  (of  course  to  you  and 
me  really)  one  fare  and  one-third  for  the  round  trip.  We  asked 
for  one  fare,  but  this  is  good.  Now  if  the  drivellers  in  the  Congress 
will  vote  instead  of  talk  and  get  through  next  week,  there  will  be  a 
revival  of  confidence  and  of  good  cheer  almost  at  once  ;  then  the 
Pan-American  Medical  Congress  may  pan  out  a  tolerable  sort  of 
success.  Now  it  bids  fair  to  be  like  a  great  dinner-table  spread  for 
twenty  guests,  five  in  a  corner  of  it  appalled  by  the  preparation  for 
a  large  company.  There  should  be  three  thousand,  or  at  least  two 
thousand,  to  carry  out  the  menu  provided.  I  doubt  that  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  will  materialize ;  still  it  may  do  some  good."  ^ 

His  forebodings,  fortunately,  were  not  realized ;  and  to 
the  same  friend,  then  at  the  Columbian  Exposition,  Chicago, 
he  wrote  a  few  days  later. 

"Washington,  September  4,  1893. 

"  Heaven  defend  us  !  I  am  surrounded  from  dawn  to  dawn.  It 
will  be  a  success  ;  the  right  people  have  come.  I  may  be  able  to  do 
something  to  influence  the  South  American  commissioners  at  Chicago 
through  the  people  here  from  these  countries.  [This  in  reference 
to  the  Archaeological  Museum  in  Philadelphia  and  the  exhibits  at 
the  Columbian  Exposition,  which  he  hoped  to  secure  for  it.]  The 
Committee  of  Arrangements  here  has  contracted  to  pay  nine  thou- 
sand dollars  for  a  train  !  !  !  Forty-seven  Mexicans  are  here  ;  some 
really  scientific  and  important  men.  Many  are  accompanied  by 
their  wives  and  daughters.  I  have  promised  to  go  to  each  South 
American  country  to  spend  at  least  six  months.     They  published 

^  MS.  letter. 

u8 


Mr.  50]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

my  picture,  and,  they  tell  me,  the  Post  states  that  I  look  very 
much  like  a  bishop.  We  go  to  Philadelphia,  where  I  will  give  all 
the  foreign  delegates  a  big  time  at  the  University.  It  may  do 
some  good."  ^ 

"  September  5. 

"  Please  get  hold  of  Professor  Dr.  Finckler,  of  Bonn.  His  head- 
quarters are  at  the  German  Commission.  He  is  officially  appointed 
to  report  on  educational  matters.  He  was  to  be  here,  and  I  had 
counted  largely  upon  having  him  at  the  University ;  but  he  must 
have  all  data  upon  which  to  base  a  good  report  of  us  :  my  last 
Provost  report,  the  Franklin  Memorial  Report,  the  judges'  award,  etc. 
My  special  reason  [and  it  was  also  one  of  the  great  reasons  why  he 
was  anxious  to  bring  the  delegates  of  the  Congress  to  the  University] 
is  that  on  account  of  the  villainous  diploma  selling  formerly  done 
in  Philadelphia  by  that  old  rascal,  Buchanan,  Philadelphia  diplomas 
(and  indeed  all  American  medical  diplomas,  but  especially  those  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania)  are  sadly  discredited  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Continentals  ;  that  must  be  set  right."  ^ 

"  September  5. 

"  Got  to  bed  at  3.30  ;  dinner  of  medical  editors  ;  great  fun.  But 
what  animals  we  men  are  !  This  is  about  what  I  shall  say  [encloses 
galley  print  of  his  address  before  the  Congress] ,  but  it  is  deadly  dull 
stuff." ' 

"  September  6. 

"  Immense  success  here.  The  only  thing  that  gratifies  me  is 
that  a  really  useful  mechanism  has  been  created."  * 

As  all  roads  lead  to  Rome,  so  all  of  Dr.  Pepper's  activities 
and  aspirations  led  to  the  University.  The  Pan-American 
Medical  Congress  and  the  learned  commissioner  who  re- 
ported the  educational  institutions  in  America  were  alike 


MS.  letter.   ^  ^g^  i^^^^^^       3  MS.  letter.    *  MS.  letter. 

119 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

enlisted  to  make  clear  to  the  world  that  a  public  abuse, 
at  one  time  notorious  in  Philadelphia,  the  selling  of  medical 
diplomas  "  by  that  old  rascal,  Buchanan,"  in  no  way  involved 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  disgrace  had  been 
very  keenly  felt  by  medical  men  in  the  city,  and  they  owe 
Dr.  Pepper  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  he  finally  removed  this 
odium  and  set  the  medical  institutions  of  the  city  right  be- 
fore the  world. 

Dr.  Pepper's  amusing  account  of  the  Congress  only  hints 
at  the  remarkable  reception  which  it  gave  him.  It  was  a 
representative  body ;  many  of  the  most  distinguished  physi- 
cians and  surgeons  of  North  and  of  South  America  were 
present,  and  all  united  in  honoring  him.  He  now  began  to 
realize  the  extent  of  his  reputation  as  a  professional  man. 
His  address  as  President  was  written  in  hours  of  weariness 
and  overwork.  It  awakens  no  suggestion,  however,  of  j' 
haste,  and  it  was  received  with  loud  acclaim.  Undoubtedly 
it  is  the  most  notable  of  his  many  medical  addresses.  No- 
where else  will  there  be  found  an  equally  comprehensive  yet 
brief  history  of  medicine  in  the  Western  World.  And  tower- 
ing above  the  address,  excellent  as  it  was,  stood  Dr.  Pep- 
per's charming  personality.  An  address  of  a  lower  order 
would  have  fallen  from  his  lips  as  an  eloquent  and  pleas- 
ing production.  The  manner  of  the  man  was  particularly 
charming  to  the  delegates  from  the  Latin-American  coun- 
tries. The  cold  manners  of  most  northern  men  are  repel- 
lent to  our  southern  friends.  Dr.  Pepper  combined  the 
strength  and  vigor  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  with  the  suavity 
and  grace  of  the  Latin-American.  The  combination  was 
irresistible  as  it  was  extraordinary.  Unquestionably  it  was 
one  of  the  secrets  of  his  marvellous  influence  with  men. 
Could  he  have  accepted  the   invitations  which  poured  in 

120 


^T.  50]  PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 

upon  him  from  the  savants  of  Mexico  and  South  America, 
he  might  have  spent  the  remaining  years  of  his  Hfe  in  a 
triumphant  tour  through  those  countries.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  honors  shown  him  at  the  Pan-American 
Congress  gratified  him  more  than  any  others  which  he  re- 
ceived during  his  long  professional  career.  He  understood 
the  temperament  and  character  of  his  southern  friends.  He 
knew,  perhaps  better  than  most  northern  men,  the  hygienic 
needs  of  Mexican  and  South  American  communities.  His 
exhaustive  study  of  climatology  had  made  him  familiar 
with  the  conditions  of  life  in  these  countries,  and  as  ht  was 
essentially  a  practical  man,  he  could  converse  with  the 
southern  delegates  on  questions  of  local  interest  to  them. 
He  liked  the  warm  Latin  temperament,  enjoyed  its  enthusi- 
asm, and  knew  how  to  stir  it  to  its  depths.  The  fame  which 
the  savants  and  the  Government  of  Mexico  accorded  to  his 
memory  at  the  time  of  his  death  is  evidence  of  the  honor 
in  which  he  was  held  among  Latin-Americans. 

His  medical  writings  for  1893  were  infrequent.  The 
University  Medical  Magazine  for  February,  1894,  contained 
an  article  by  him  on  "  A  Case  of  Purulent  Pericarditis,  or 
Paracentesis  of  the  Pericardium,"  with  notes  by  Drs.  J.  H. 
Musser  and  John  B.  Deaver.^  The  Cleveland  Medical  So- 
ciety elected  him  an  honorary  member,  and  the  State  Asy- 
lum for  the  Chronic  Insane  at  Lebanon,  Pennsylvania, 
invited  him  to  become  its  consulting  physician.'  It  was  in 
this  year  that  the  Medical  Club  of  Philadelphia  gave  him 
a  reception,  the  first  honor  of  the  kind  to  a  physician  of 
Philadelphia.     The  Pittsburg  Academy  of  Medicine  elected 


^  Reprinted  February,  1894.      7  pp. 

^August  9,  1894.      MS.  letter,  Joseph  L.  Lemberger,  Secretary. 

121 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

him  an  honorary  member  in  January,  1895.^  He  had 
delivered  an  address  ^  before  this  academy  in  the  preceding 
month.  This  address  reflected  his  activities  in  his  native 
city,  where  for  many  years  he  had  been  laboring  to  secure 
a  supply  of  pure  water  through  a  system  of  filtration.  He 
discussed  Philadelphia  questions  before  a  Pittsburg  audi- 
ence. During  1895  he  published  only  three  articles:  on 
"  Malignant  Endocarditis,"  ^  in  the  preparation  of  which  he 
was  assisted  by  Dr.  Alfred  Stengel,  one  of  his  favorite  stu- 
dents, his  assistant  at  the  time  as  Instructor  of  Clinical 
Medicine,  and  destined  to  become  his  successor  in  one  of 
the  two  chairs  which  were  created  to  fill  the  place  vacated 
by  his  death ;  a  paper  on  a  case  of  "  Phthisis  Apparently 
Cured,"*  and  the  address  on  Daniel  Drake,  delivered 
before  the  Mississippi  Valley  Medical  Association  at  the 
Detroit  meeting  in  September.^  He  wrote  this  address  at 
Newport,  amidst  a  tremendous  pressure  of  work.  A  com- 
mittee of  the  Pan-American  Congress  came  to  escort  him 
to  Detroit  and  to  arrange  the  details  of  the  next  meeting  of 
the  Congress  in  the  city  of  Mexico.  Not  a  line  of  this  address 
suggests  that  it  was  the  work  of  a  broken  and  weary  man. 
It  bubbles  over  with  spirit,  freshness,  and  information.  Dr. 
Pepper  had  been  pioneering  all  his  life,  and  he  sympathized 
with  Drake,  the   pioneer  of  medicine   in   the  West.      He 


'  January  20. 

^December  i,  1894.  Address  of  Dr.  Pepper,  delivered  at  the 
Fifth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Pittsburg  Academy  of  Medicine. 
The  Pittsburg  Medical  Review^  1895. 

^  University  Medical  Magazine^  May  ;    also  reprinted. 

■•  Id.,  December,  and  reprint. 

'  September  4,  1895.  Published  by  the  Chicago  American  Med- 
ical Association  Press. 

Z22 


JEr.  52]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

admired  the  hardy  Kentuckian  who  had  accomplished  so 
much  in  life.  The  address,  highly  finished  as  it  is,  ranks 
with  the  address  on  Dr.  Rush  rather  than  with  the  address 
before  the  Pan-American  Congress. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  address  on  Drake  at  Detroit  he 
gave  official  announcement,  as  Chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Pan-American  Congress,  that  the  Repub- 
lic of  Mexico  had  extended  a  cordial  invitation  to  the  phy- 
sicians of  the  United  States  to  attend  a  second  Congress  in 
the  City  of  Mexico  during  Christmas  week,  1896.  At  the 
first  meeting  at  Washington  success  had  been  won  and  zeal 
aroused  to  make  the  organization  permanent.  Since  that 
time  much  correspondence  had  kept  the  leading  members 
of  the  association  in  close  touch,  and  it  had  been  decided 
that  the  medical  interests  of  the  Western  World  would  be 
advanced  by  holding  the  next  meeting  of  the  Congress  in 
one  of  the  South  American  countries  or  in  Mexico.  The 
matter  was  settled  by  the  attitude  of  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment and  the  enthusiasm  of  physicians  and  other  scientific 
men  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  The  entire  community  there 
vied  with  one  another  in  their  efforts  to  confer  dignity,  bril- 
liancy and  solid  value  upon  the  approaching  gathering. 
President  Diaz  and  the  Minister  of  Justice  and  Public  In- 
struction, Senor  Barranda  ;  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Mexico, 
Sefior  Carmacho ;  the  President  of  the  Congress,  Dr.  Car- 
mona;  its  indefatigable  Secretary,  Dr.  Eduardo  Liceaga, 
greatly  distinguished  for  his  successful  labors  in  the  cause 
of  public  health,  were  perhaps  the  most  prominent  in  per- 
fecting all  arrangements. 

The  trains  which  brought  the  delegates  to  Mexico  were 
met  by  delightful  hosts ;  the  railroad  stations  were  deco- 
rated with  flags  of  different  countries,  and  the  arrangements 

123 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

for  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  the  visitors  were  on  an  im- 
perial scale.  The  Congress  held  its  sessions  in  the  School 
of  Mines,  but  the  opening  session  on  the  evening  of  No- 
vember 16  was  in  the  National  Theatre.  President  Diaz 
delivered  the  address  of  welcome  ;  Dr.  Pepper  then  de- 
livered the  address  of  the  evening.  Never  had  he  spoken 
before  a  more  brilliant  body,  and  never  before  had  he 
received  so  great  an  ovation.  The  resources  of  hospitality 
were  exhausted  to  make  his  visit  notable,  impressive,  and 
happy.  His  address  was  less  technical  than  the  one  he  had 
delivered  in  Washington,  but  the  occasion  required  a  differ- 
ent preparation.  In  Mexico  he  was  performing  an  inter- 
national social  function  rather  than  delivering  a  scientific 
lecture.  The  man  and  the  occasion  had  met.  Of  the 
many  public  duties  which  Dr.  Pepper  was  repeatedly  called 
upon  to  perform,  addresses  of  this  kind  were  perhaps  the 
most  numerous,  and  no  man  was  ever  better  fitted  by 
nature  and  training  than  he  to  perform  such  duties  grace- 
fully. The  vigor  of  the  Saxon  and  the  flower  and  grace  of 
the  Latin  were  curiously  combined  in  him,  so  that  he  could 
perform  such  duties  as  these  with  ease  and  effectiveness. 
His  visit  to  Mexico  was  a  royal  progress.  The  city  was  at 
his  feet.  In  his  address  he  touched  on  many  subjects  of 
common  interest  to  the  different  nations  of  the  New  World : 
education,  arbitration,  public  hygiene,  reciprocity  in  trade, 
and — doubtless  of  the  greatest  interest  to  him — the  scientific 
study  of  archaeology  and  ethnology.^ 


*  MS.  The  Address  and  Proceedings  of  the  Second  Triennial 
Meeting  of  the  International  Executive  Commission  of  the  Pan- 
American  Congress.  Held  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  November  18, 
1896.      Cincinnati,  Ohio,  U.  S.  A.      1897. 

124 


JEr.  53]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

His  reference  in  the  address  to  the  study  ot  archaeology 
and  ethnology  recalls  an  anecdote  of  this  visit  to  Mexico. 
He  was  invited  to  dine  with  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  of  the 
capital,  who  had  an  old  Moorish  vase,  almost  priceless,  among 
his  art  treasures.  An  American  lady  who  happened  to  be 
there  that  afternoon  was  shown  the  vase,  and  knowing  that 
Dr.  Pepper  was  in  town,  remarked  to  its  owner,  "  Look  out; 
if  Dr.  Pepper  sees  that  vase  he  will  want  to  have  it."  "  No 
one  that  lives  can  have  that,"  was  the  reply ;  "  it  is  dearer 
to  me  than  any  other  of  my  possessions."  A  few  days  later 
the  lady  met  the  Mexican  host  and  inquired,  with  a  smile, 
"How  about  that  vase'?"  "Alas!"  responded  he,  with 
emotion,  "  he  has  taken  it  for  the  University  Museum.  I 
must  have  been  hypnotized,  but  it  is  so." 

On  September  16,  he  was  elected  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Medical  Association  of  the  County  of  Kings,  in  New 
York,  and  two  months  later  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Railroad  Conductors'  Club  of  North  America.  This  last 
election  hints  at  the  friendly  relations  which  existed  between 
him  and  that  most  worthy  company  of  American  citizens. 
Dr.  Pepper's  consulting  practice  took  him  all  over  the 
country.  Scarcely  a  week  passed  when  he  was  not  called 
to  some  distant  point,  which  he  usually  reached  by  special 
train.  These  numerous  and  hurried  trips  brought  him  in 
contact  with  a  multitude  of  railroad  men,  and  with  all  of 
these,  from  brakeman  to  conductor,  he  maintained  most  cor- 
dial relations.  The  result  might  be  expected:  he  travelled 
in  the  utmost  comfort  and  received  attention  such  as  money 
could  never  buy.  It  was  a  fixed  habit  of  his  never  to 
ignore  a  subordinate.  He  treated  the  humblest  man  in  the 
railroad  service  with  as  much  courtesy  as  he  did  the  presi- 
dent of  the  corporation. 

125 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

On  one  occasion  in  connection  with  an  important  matter 
at  Washington,  it  became  necessary  to  convince  the  Chief 
of  a  Bureau  of  the  Government  that  a  piece  of  work  which 
the  University  wished  done  should  be  done  by  the  Govern- 
ment gratuitously.  A  large  part  of  this  service  involved 
clerical  work.  When  the  matter  came  up  in  conference, 
Dr.  Pepper  inquired  about  the  character  of  the  Chief  of  the 
Bureau,  and  one  who  was  present  suggested  that  a  peremp- 
tory order  be  obtained  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  with 
whom  Dr.  Pepper  and  others  who  were  present  had  most 
friendly  relations.  "  No," said  Dr.  Pepper;  "  let  us  not  over- 
ride a  subordinate  ;  we  will  only  antagonize  him  and  trammel 
our  efforts.  Let  us  keep  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  re- 
serve and  appeal  to  him  only  when  necessary."  Following 
out  this  programme,  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  was  first  ap- 
proached in  a  pleasing  way.  He  was  invited  to  a  function 
in  Philadelphia,  was  introduced  to  congenial  persons,  and 
thus  brought  into  an  atmosphere  of  sympathy  with  the  pur- 
pose of  the  University.  A  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior asking  for  an  order  that  the  work  might  be  done  was 
written,  but  it  was  never  delivered.  The  Chief  of  the 
Bureau,  and  indeed  some  of  his  subordinate?,  were  won 
over  in  a  friendly  way  and  the  work  was  speedily  accom- 
plished in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  all  concerned. 

One  of  the  flattering  incidents  connected  with  Dr.  Pepper's 
visit  to  Mexico  is  related  in  the  following  letter : 

"City  of  Mexico,  November  28,  1896. 

"  In  accordance  with  the  promise  made  you  while  here,  I  pro- 
posed you  as  an  honorary  member  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine,  at 
the  first  meeting  which  we  had  since  your  departure  {i.e.^  25th 
inst.). 

"  Our  regulations  require  five  signatures  for  admission  to  honor- 

126 


Mr.  53]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

ary  membership.  After  ^  [five  ?]  had  signed  in  the  first  place,  all  of 
the  members  present — desiring  to  have  the  honor  of  proposing  you 
— signed  the  petition,  and  you  were  accepted  unanimously. 

"  This  will  demonstrate  to  you  the  high  esteem  in  which  you  are 
held  by  the  members  of  the  Academy,  and  it  must  be  extremely 
gratifying  for  you  to  have  obtained  the  votes  of  scientific  men  com- 
posing that  body,  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  quite  a  natural  result  of 
your  merits  and  kindness  towards  them. 

"  You  will  receive  your  Diploma  at  an  early  date,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  believe  me, 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"F.  M.   Banderson."2 

In  January,  1897,  he  was  elected  consulting  physician  to 
the  Philadelphia  Hospital  for  Women,  the  last  appointment 
of  the  kind,  and  the  last  of  many  of  the  kind  which  he  re- 
ceived.' In  July  he  received  notice  of  his  election  as  For- 
eign Corresponding  Member  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Medicine,  Peru.*  Dr.  Osier's  book  on  "Angina  Pectoris," 
dedicated  to  Dr.  Gairdner,  appeared  about  this  time.  A 
letter  by  Gairdner  to  Dr.  Pepper  referring  to  it  is  of  melan- 
choly interest  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  as  Dr. 
Pepper  died  of  this  disease. 

"  9  The  College,  Glasgow,  April  15,  1897. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Pepper  : 

"  You  send  me  so  many  and  such  good  things  that  I  am  ashamed 
not  to  be  able  to  make  any  return  in  kind,  but  you  must  just  con- 


1  This  is  an  exact  copy  of  the  letter ;  some  word  evidently  was 
omitted  from  the  original,  probably  the  word  "  five." 

2  MS.  letter. 

•'^  January  25,  1897.     MS.  letter  from  Mary  Newhall,  Correspond- 
ing Secretary, 
*  July  7.      MS. 

127 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

sider  me  as  an  old  fellow  with  failing  eyesight,  who  has  come  to  the 
sad  conclusion  that  his  best  work  has  been  done,  and  that  if  '  ilka 
dog  has  his  day,' — the  day  of  this  dog  is  wellnigh  over  for  the  kind 
of  work  of  which  he  was  at  one  time  so  fond,  and  you  will  kindly 
take  him,  therefore,  at  his  own  estimate  when  he  sends  you  a  little 
pamphlet  like  that  I  enclose  to-day,  not  at  all  new,  but  hammering  on 
a  theme  I  have  touched  on  before. 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  of  you  as  stirring  in  your  vocation,  and  the 
noble  work  of  your  clinical  laboratory  will  be  an  example  to  us  all 
and  to  the  next  generation  when  I,  if  not  you,  have  been  swept  off 
the  board  to  make  room  for  younger  men.  Osier  has  sent  me  a 
capital  book  on  "  Angina  Pectoris,"  which  he  dedicates  to  me  very 
kindly,  thus  once  more  improving  greatly  on  work  I  did  thirty 
years  ago.  I  wish  I  could  get  that  article  on  '  Aneurism,'  for  Clif- 
ford Allbutt,  finished  ;  but  it  lingers  in  hand,  though  more  than  half 
through,  and  I  can  never  get  it  advanced  as  I  would  like.  You 
promised  me,  I  think,  some  applications  of  the  Rontgen  rays 
upon  the  subject,  but  I  have  not  seen  more  than  a  hint  of  it,  and  I 
have  had  no  suitable  cases  lately.  Apart  from  the  semi-blindness, 
however,  I  am  very  well — only  I  don't  think  that  even  the  British 
Medical  Association  and  the  British  Association  of  Science  to- 
gether will  tempt  me  over  to  Toronto  or  Montreal  this  autumn. 
My  son  Frank  has  been  doing  good  work  in  the  hospitals,  and  will 
in  May  go  as  private  secretary  and  assistant  to  Mr.  Rolson,  of 
Leeds,  a  most  distinguished  surgeon,  from  whom  he  will  learn  a 
great  deal. 

"  Please  take  note  of  the  little  slip  enclosed,'  to  see  how  difficult 
it  is  to  put  down  an  abuse.  The  scamp  who  so  advertises  was 
taken  off'  the  Medical  Register  for  misconduct,  after  an  appeal  to 
the  Privy  Council ;  here  he  is  with  a  bogus  degree  from  Philadel- 


*  The  Cure  of  Consumption.  2s.  6d.,  post  free.  To  be  had 
of  author,  E.  W.  Alabone,  M.D.,  Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A.,  D.Sc, 
Ex-M.P.C.S.  Eng.,  by  Exam.,  1070  Highbury,  London,  N. 

Z28 


m.T.  55]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

phia,  as  lively  as  ever.     Let  me  hear  always  if  Mrs.  Pepper  is  well, 
or  yourself,  when  you  write. 

"  W.   Gairdner."  ' 

Soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish-American  War 
he  was  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  a  mem- 
ber of  a  commission  of  three  to  examine  medical  officers  of 
the  National  Guard  before  their  joining  the  volunteer  army. 
It  was  his  last  appointment.  He  went  to  Mount  Gretna, 
Pennsylvania,  the  first  week  in  May,  though  physically  un- 
fit to  perform  the  duties  assigned  him.  Nevertheless  he 
ignored  the  warnings  of  disease,  and  went  to  the  camp 
expecting  to  be  absent  from  home  four  days.  The  weather 
was  chilly,  with  penetrating  dampness,  and  he  was  unable 
to  remain  in  camp  as  he  had  intended. 

Franklin,  his  second  son,  was  already  in  camp  when  his 
father  was  appointed  inspector.  He  left  Mount  Gretna  for 
Philadelphia,  to  consult  his  father  about  the  enlistment, 
about  the  same  time  Dr.  Pepper  left  Philadelphia  on  his 
way  to  the  camp.  Their  trains  passed,  and  neither  knew 
that  the  other  was  so  near  at  hand. 

Dr.  Pepper  found  the  weather  too  severe  at  Mount  Gretna, 
and  started  homeward.  Franklin  meanwhile  had  returned  to 
Mount  Gretna,  and  father  and  son  had  a  brief  conversation 
as  their  trains  stood  side  by  side.  It  was  their  last  meeting. 
Franklin  enlisted  for  two  years  in  the  Spanish-American  War, 
his  father  approving,  and  Dr.  Pepper  returned  to  Philadelphia 
to  prepare  for  a  journey  to  California  in  search  of  rest  and 
restoration  to  health.  But  before  leaving  he  must  push 
forward  the  civic  plans  in  which  he  was  so  deeply  interested, 


1  MS.  letter. 
9  129 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

nearly  all  of  which  were  embodied  in  a  twelve  million  dollars 
loan  bill  then  pending  in  Councils. 

With  the  entry  of  his  appointment  on  this  medical 
commission  his  brief  diary  of  his  appointments,  pubUc 
addresses,  and  writings  closes.  Registering  from  year  to  year, 
usually  from  month  to  month,  the  index  to  professional 
honors,  such  as  rarely  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  physician,  and  social 
activities  and  literary  work  accomplished,  sufficient  in  them- 
selves to  fill  the  measure  of  a  busy  life.  Dr.  Pepper  un- 
consciously betrayed  the  quality  which  distinguished  all  his 
work — the  quality  of  accuracy.  The  half-dozen  faded  blue 
pages  on  which,  written  in  his  own  hand,  stands  the  index  to 
his  activities,  require  no  interlineation  or  correction.  The 
most  exacting  test,  verification  fi^om  other  sources,  reveals 
the  accuracy  of  the  register  which  he  made,  fi'om  time  to 
time,  of  his  own  life.  But  the  last  entry  is  incomplete.  No 
date  is  given — an  omission  peculiar  to  the  two  entries  for 
the  year  1898.  He  had  marked  off  the  page,  like  those  for 
the  preceding  forty  years,  for  a  full  year's  activities. 

"  The  wizard  hand  lies  cold, 
Which  at  its  topmost  speed  let  fall  the  pen 
And  left  the  tale  half  told." 

His  only  contribution  to  medical  literature  the  last  year 
of  his  life,  was  an  article  on  "  Abrupt  Onset  in  Typhoid 
Fever,"  which  appeared  in  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Journal, 
January  8,  and  was  prepared  with  the  assistance  of  Dr. 
Stengel.     It  was  reprinted  after  Dr.  Pepper's  death.^ 


^  MS.  pamphlet,  1899.    10  pp.    The  Philadelphia  Medical  Journal. 


130 


JEt.  48]      PEPPER    CLINICAL    LABORATORY 


VI 

THE   PEPPER  CLINICAL  LABORATORY;    ESTIMATE 
OF    DR.   PEPPER   AS    PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 

DR.  PEPPER'S  interest  in  the  University  Hospital 
continued  unabated  through  life.  The  Hospital, 
in  connection  with  the  Medical  Department,  was 
the  object  of  his  fostering  care.  In  1891  he  initiated  and 
actively  took  up  the  movement  to  secure  a  Laboratory  of 
Pathology  in  connection  with  the  Medical  School,  offering 
to  give  from  his  own  purse  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  for  its  support.^  This  proposition  meant  that  he 
would  transfer  a  subscription  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  which 
he  had  then  recently  made  towards  a  fund  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  for  the  endowment  of  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment, to  insure  the  extension  of  the  course  in  that  department 
from  three  years  to  four.'^  The  Medical  Faculty  approved 
the  transfer,^  soon  after  which  action  he  made  the  following 
proposition  to  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  University 
Hospital : 

His  subscription  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  secure  the 
adoption  by  the  Medical  Faculty  and  Trustees  of  the  four 


^  Documents  relating  to  the  foundation  of  the  William  Pepper 
Laboratory  of  Clinical  Medicine.  Proposal  of  Dr.  Pepper,  May 
29,  1891. 

^  See  Dr.  Pepper's  Inaugural  Address  at  the  Opening  of  the 
Four-year  Course  of  Medical  Study  in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, October  2,  1893.  Reprinted  from  the  University  Medical 
Magaxine.      16  pp. 

^  February  20,  1894. 

131 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

years  graded  medical  course  he  had  made  payable  in  five 
annual  instalments  of  ten  thousand  dollars  each,  the  first 
due  in  1893.  The  extension  of  the  medical  course  had 
proved  a  financial  as  well  as  an  educational  success,  and  it 
was  the  desire  of  the  Medical  Faculty  to  have  an  addition 
to  its  equipment  rather  than  to  its  endowment.  The  Penn- 
sylvania Legislature  in  1893  made  an  appropriation  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  was  a  condition  of  the  grant 
that  eighty  thousand  dollars  must  be  raised  by  private  sub- 
scription. Therefore  immediate  action  was  necessary  to 
make  the  State  appropriation  available. 

Dr.  Pepper  directed  his  bankers  to  pay  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  the  Treasurer  of  the  University  on  condition  that  the 
remaining  thirty  thousand  dollars  in  subscriptions  necessary 
to  make  the  State  appropriation  available  should  be  sub- 
scribed and  paid  into  the  University  before  May  1,  1894, 
and  that  the  total  sum  thus  secured,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  dollars,  available  for  construction,  should 
forthwith  be  expended  in  accordance  with  the  act  of  the 
Legislature ;  ^  the  Trustees  to  pay  annually  from  the  funds  of 
the  Hospital  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  Laboratory  of 
Clinical  Medicine  five  per  cent,  upon  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars,  which  Dr.  Pepper  intended  should  be  reserved  as  an 
endowment  fund.  The  Laboratory  was  to  be  erected  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  plans  prepared  by  Dr.  John  S.  Billings, 
at  the  time  the  Director  of  the  Hospital,  on  the  site  desig- 

*  For  the  extension  of  the  Maternity  Hospital,  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  For  the  erection  of  a  Laboratory  of  Clinical  Medicine, 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  For  the  erection  of  a  new  wing  to 
hospital,  ninety-five  thousand  dollars.  For  the  erection  of  a  new 
laundry  and  disinfecting  apparatus,  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  For 
minor  constructions,  seven  thousand  dollars. 

132 


^T.  50]      PEPPER   CLINICAL    LABORATORY 

nated  by  its  managers,  and  should  always  be  styled  the 
William  Pepper  Laboratory  of  Chnical  Medicine.  "  It 
being  my  intention,"  continued  this  communication,  "to 
create  hereby  a  memorial  for  my  father."  The  Director  and 
Assistant  Director  of  the  Laboratory  were  to  be  appointed 
annually  by  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Hospital,  upon 
the  nomination  of  the  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice 
of  Medicine  and  of  Clinical  Medicine — professorships  held 
in  succession  by  Dr.  Pepper's  father  and  by  himself 

The  purposes  of  the  Laboratory  were  to  promote  the  in- 
terests of  the  patients  in  the  University  Hospital  "  by  the 
prosecution  of  minute  clinical  studies  and  original  research, 
and  to  advance  the  interests  of  science  by  the  publication 
of  the  results  of  such  work."  Dr.  Pepper  stipulated  that  at 
no  time  should  teaching  be  given  in  the  Laboratary  to  under- 
graduates or  to  any  students  except  graduates  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania  or  of  other  approved  medical  schools 
"  whose  curriculum  is  at  least  of  equal  length  and  grade 
with  that  of  the  Medical  Department  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania."  Provision  was  also  made  "  for  advanced 
workers  engaged  in  original  research."  Publications  based 
on  work  done  were  to  bear  the  general  title  "  Contributions 
from  the  William  Pepper  Laboratory  of  Clinical  Medicine."^ 

The  managers  of  the  Hospital  accepted  Dr.  Pepper's  offer 
and  requested  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  carry  its  plan  into 
effect.'*  The  Medical  Faculty  entered  heartily  into  the  ful- 
filment of  the  plan.^     All  the  formalities  having  at  last  been 


*  Proposition  of  Dr.  Pepper  to  the   Board  of  Managers  of  the 
University  Hospital,  February  24,  1894,  pp.  5-7. 
^  February  26,  1894.     Id.,  p.  8. 
^  Communication,  March  5,  1894,  p.  9. 

133 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

complied  with,  the  Board  of  Trustees  adopted  Dr.  Pepper's 
laboratory  plan,  released  him  from  his  subscription  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars  towards  the  cost  of  extending  the  medical 
course  to  four  years,  and  on  April  23,  1894,  he  transmitted 
his  check  for  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  specific  purpose 
of  the  Laboratory.^  On  December  4,  1895,  the  William 
Pepper  Laboratory  of  Clinical  Medicine  was  formally  opened. 
The  presentation  address  was  by  Dr.  John  S.  Billings,  Pro- 
fessor of  Hygiene  in  the  University  and  Director  of  the 
University  Hospital.  After  giving  a  brief  description  of  the 
building  and  its  construction,  he  concluded  with  the  fol- 
lowing letter  from  Dr.  Pepper,  which  gives  a  history  of  the 
movement  culminating  in  the  erection  of  the  laboratory  and 
of  the  motives  which  had  impelled  its  founder. 

"  December  3,  1895. 

"  My  dear  Billings  : 

"  In  response  to  your  request  that  I  would  write  a  letter  to  you, 
as  Director  of  the  University  Hospital,  stating  my  purpose  and  wishes 
in  establishing  this  Laboratory  of  Clinical  Medicine,  I  have  prepared, 
with  considerable  hesitation,  the  following  statement. 

"  My  father,  the  late  William  Pepper,  held  the  chair  of  the  Theory 
and  Practice  of  Medicine  and  of  Clinical  Medicine  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  from  i860  until  the  spring  of  1864,  when  he  was 
forced  to  resign  by  the  progress  of  the  disease  which  caused  his 
death  on  October  10,  1864,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 

"  Already  at  that  time  a  few  young  men  had  formed  the  definite 
hope  of  reforming  the  system  of  medical  education  in  America,  and 
of  placing  it  on  the  sound  basis  of  clinical  teaching.  I  can  say  for 
some  of  them,  including  my  brother  George,  who  died  in  1872,  at 
the  age  of  thirty-two  years,  after  a  brilliant  and  all  too  short  career, 
that   the  eloquent  advocacy  of  clinical   teaching   and  its   effective 


^  Communication,  March  5,  1894,  p.  13. 
134 


^T.  52]     PEPPER   CLINICAL   LABORATORY 

application  by  my  father  supplied  at  once  the  inspiration  and  the 
exemplar.  Both  father  and  son  wore  themselves  out  in  the  service 
of  humanity  and  science  and  fell  victims  to  the  terrible  scourge 
of  pulmonary  consumption. 

"  It  is  not  necessary  to  review  the  long  and  weary  struggle  for 
reform  in  medical  education  which  has  only  now  ended.  The  role 
played  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  has  been  a  proud  one,  as 
befitted  her  traditions  and  her  obligations.  The  names  of  Edward 
Rhoads,  of  Horace  Binney  Hare,  of  John  S.  Parry,  of  William  F. 
Jenks,  should  not  fail  of  mention,  although  they  fell  early  in  the 
struggle ;  for  these  were  brave  spirits,  who  dared  to  aspire  greatly. 
And  other  names — Leidy  and  Agnew,  of  the  immortals  ;  and  Stille 
and  Weir  Mitchell,  still  happily  preserved  to  us  in  their  rare  intel- 
lectual vigor ;  and  Wood  and  Norris  and  Tyson,  my  life-long  col- 
leagues— must  be  named  with  grateful  tribute  for  their  labors  in  the 
cause  of  higher  medical  education  and  of  clinical  teaching  and 
scientific  research. 

"  It  was  our  fond  dream,  in  those  early  days,  that  a  happy  time 
would  come  when  well-equipped  laboratories  with  adequate  endow- 
ment would  offer  the  chance  of  original  investigation  which  was 
then  denied.  Horace  Hare  fitted  himself  by  long  and  costly  training 
for  the  special  work  of  chemical  research  in  the  field  of  clinical 
medicine.  His  gifts  and  attainments  were  worthy  of  his  descent 
from  America's  first  chemist,  Robert  Hare.  As  chairman  of  the 
building  committee  of  this  hospital  in  1872  I  planned  some  small 
rooms  around  the  base  of  this  amphitheatre  where  you  now  stand ; 
and  I  can  recall  vividly  the  pleasure  with  which  I  gave  the  necessary 
equipment  to  have  the  best  of  these  rooms  ready  for  Hare  when  he 
returned  in  1875  from  the  laboratory  in  Leipsic. 

"  He  was  gratified,  and  entered  at  once  with  enthusiasm  upon 
important  chemical  researches  in  connection  with  cases  of  disease 
in  the  hospital  wards.  In  less  than  one  year  pulmonary  consump- 
tion attacked  him,  and  he  died  in  1878.  Parry  and  then  Jenks 
succumbed  to  the  same  affection,  while  Rhoads,  one  of  the  most 

135 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

beloved  of  our  little  group,  died  of  organic  heart  disease.  You 
cannot  wonder  that  I  registered  a  vow  to  do  what  I  could  to 
secure  the  erection  and  endowment  of  a  special  department  of  the 
University  Hospital  for  chronic  disease  of  the  lungs  and  heart,  and 
a  laboratory  of  clinical  medicine  to  promote  original  research  into 
the  causes  and  nature  of  disease.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  held  August  12,  1879,  a  memorial  setting  forth  the  ne- 
cessity of  provision  for  those  suffering  from  chronic  disease  of  the 
chest  was  formally  approved,  and  it  was  resolved  that  a  special 
ward  should  be  opened  so  soon  as  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  was  available.  It  was  with  special  reference  to  this 
undertaking  that  the  annual  Charity  Ball  was  established,  and  over 
twelve  thousand  dollars  was  secured  the  first  year  for  the  new  de- 
partment of  this  Hospital.  In  addition  to  this,  the  funds  necessary 
to  endow  seventeen  beds  in  perpetuity,  amounting  to  eighty-five 
thousand  dollars,  were  contributed  by  generous  men  and  women  ; 
and  then  a  noble-hearted  man,  Henry  C.  Gibson,  came  forward  with 
the  proposal  to  erect  a  separate  wing  to  be  devoted  to  the  care  of 
patients  with  consumption  and  other  chronic  diseases  of  the  chest. 
It  was  you,  Mr.  Director,  who  prepared  the  plans  of  the  Gibson 
wing,  a  structure  which  will  commemorate  so  long  as  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  shall  endure  the  name  and  good  deeds  of  one  of 
the  best  friends  the  University  has  ever  possessed.  It  is  true  it  has 
been  impossible  to  devote  this  wing  exclusively  to  these  cases  until 
now,  when  the  completion  of  the  new  surgical  wing  of  the  Hospital 
will  permit  proper  classification  and  arrangement  of  patients.  I  can- 
not refrain  from  the  briefest  mention  of  the  legacy  of  sixty  thou- 
sand dollars  of  my  cousin,  Henry  Seybert,  to  endow  a  ward  in  the 
Gibson  wing  for  chronic  diseases,  and  of  the  much  larger  bequests 
made  by  two  noble  women,  which  have  not  yet  become  operative. 
"  The  most  important  step  was  taken  when  I  learned,  one  morn- 
ing in  1889,  that  it  might  be  possible  to  secure  to  Philadelphia  and 
to  the  University  the  services  of  Dr."  John  S.  Billings.  Before 
evening   Mr.   Henry  C.  Lea  had   responded  to  an   earnest  appeal 

136 


^T.  52]      PEPPER    CLINICAL    LABORATORY 

that  he  would  increase  a  previously  contemplated  gift  to  equip  a 
small  laboratory  of  hygiene  to  an  amount  sufficient  to  erect  a  com- 
plete laboratory.  His  conditions  were  that  if  an  additional  sum 
of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  secured  for  endowment ;  if 
Dr.  Billings  were  secured  as  Director  of  the  Laboratory  ;  if  the  study 
of  hygiene  were  made  obligatory  on  students  of  medicine,  of  den- 
tistry, and  of  certain  other  branches,  he  would  erect  at  his  expense 
a  Laboratory  of  Hygiene  at  a  cost  of  not  less  than  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  I  was  at  your  house  in  Washington  before  breakfast  the 
next  morning,  and  drew  up  and  signed  an  agreement  the  operation 
of  which  has  been  the  establishment  of  the  most  complete  labora- 
tory of  hygiene  in  America  under  your  direction,  and  the  rapid 
advancement  of  this  Hospital  under  your  administration  to  a  very 
high  level  of  efficiency.  Henry  C.  Gibson  contributed  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  towards  the  laboratory  fund, — many  generous 
friends  co-operated, — but  the  funds  had  reached  only  the  figures  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars  when  sixty  thousand  dollars  ^ 
was  received  from  George  S.  Pepper,  coupled  with  the  condition 
that  I  should  designate  the  particular  chair  which  should  be  endowed 
therewith.  Not  one  moment's  hesitation  did  I  feel  in  naming  the 
Chair  of  Hygiene. 

"  Even  this,  however,  did  not  complete  our  compliance  with  the 
wise  though  stringent  conditions  imposed  by  Mr.  Lea.  He  had 
stipulated  further  that,  when  the  requisite  amount  of  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  was  secured  for  the  endowment  of  the  Laboratory 
of  Hygiene,  an  effort  should  be  made  to  obtain  subscriptions  of 
money  sufficient  to  justify  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  the  Medical 
Faculty  of  the  University  in  raising  the  standard  of  medical  study 
and  in  prolonging  the  course  to  four  years.  In  order  to  secure 
compliance  with  this  final  condition  it  was  deemed  necessary  that  a 
subscription  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  should  be  made  to  the  Medical 


^  The  proportionate  share  of  the  residuary  estate  of  Mr.  Pepper 
subsequently  accruing  has  increased  the  amount  of  this  legacy  to 
ninety  thousand  dollars. 

137 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

Department,  and  that  an  additional  guarantee  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars  per  annum  for  five  years  should  be  secured.  This  was 
done,  and  it  is  only  reasonable  that  it  should  be  done.  Any  one 
who  appreciates  the  commanding  influence  exerted  by  the  Medical 
Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  will  realize  that  it 
was  essential  for  the  establishment  of  higher  medical  education 
throughout  this  continent  that  it  should  be  demonstrated  here  that 
such  advance  should  be  made  and  could  be  maintained  with  good 
practical  results.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  result  of  the  important 
change  was  unexpectedly  gratifying.  The  increased  attractiveness 
of  the  longer  and  more  practical  course  of  instruction  inaugurated 
outweighed  the  much  greater  cost  and  difficulty  of  securing  the 
degree.  The  receipts  of  the  Medical  School  did  not  fall  off;  no 
part  of  the  guarantee  fund  was  called  ;  and  the  Medical  Faculty  cor- 
dially assented,  by  resolutions  adopted  February  20,  1894,  to  the 
proposal  that  my  subscription  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  should  be 
applied  to  the  erection  and  partial  endowment  of  a  Laboratory  of 
Clinical  Medicine.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  and 
the  managers  of  the  University  Hospital  and  the  Medical  Faculty 
concurred  cordially  in  approving  the  conditions  connected  with  the 
proposed  foundation. 

*'  There  seems  to  be  every  reason  to  hope  that  the  building  thus 
constructed  upon  plans  provided  by  you  will  prove  well  adapted  for 
the  purpose  in  view.  I  desire  to  take  this  occasion  to  express  pub- 
licly my  sincere  thanks  to  you  for  the  unwearying  care  and  cordial 
sympathy  you  have  extended  to  the  work  at  every  stage  and  in  every 
phase  of  its  progress.  That  the  restriction  of  the  use  of  the  Labora- 
tory to  original  research  and  to  post-graduate  instruction  has  secured 
general  approval,  and  has  already  met  a  recognized  need,  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  nine  associates  have  already  received  ap- 
pointments and  have  been  assigned  to  distant  fields  of  original  inves- 
tigation. It  is  superfluous  to  observe  that  the  small  amount  of 
endowment  which  I  have  thus  far  been  able  to  contribute  (;^25,ooo) 
is  wholly  inadequate  for  the  maintenance  of  the  works.     It  has  been 

138 


JEt.  52]      PEPPER    CLINICAL    LABORATORY 

estimated  that  to  pay  the  necessary  salaries ;  to  provide  annual  sti- 
pends to  a  certain  number  of  the  associates ;  to  supply  the  costly 
apparatus  required  ;  to  issue  the  numerous  publications  resulting  from 
the  researches  therein  conducted ;  to  purchase  the  necessary  jour- 
nals and  works  of  reference ;  to  meet  the  current  expenses,  will  re- 
quire the  income  of  an  endowment  fund  of  at  least  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  While  I  shall  reckon  it  a  privilege  to  supply  as 
much  of  this  sum  as  my  continued  professional  labors  may  render 
possible,  I  hope  it  is  not  unseemly  to  indicate  two  directions  in  which 
contributions  might  be  made  without  great  effort  to  promote  the 
work  to  be  here  conducted.  A  Fellowship  in  Clinical  Medicine  may 
be  established  by  a  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  subject  to  the  statutes 
of  the  University,  the  income  of  which  would  defray  the  living 
expenses  of  the  incumbent  and  would  also  provide  a  fair  sum  to 
maintain  his  place  in  the  Laboratory.  A  gift  of  five  thousand  dol- 
lars would  yield  an  income  sufficient  to  meet  either  one  or  the  other 
of  these  objects,  as  might  be  indicated  by  the  donor.  To  any  one 
interested  in  the  study  of  any  special  disease  or  group  of  diseases, 
such  as  tuberculosis  or  heart  disease  or  infectious  fever, — all  of 
which  destroy  so  many  thousands  of  precious  lives  annually, — the 
advantages  of  establishing  a  special  research  fund  must  seem  obvious. 
I  earnestly  trust  that  such  endowments  will  gradually  accumulate 
around  this  Laboratory.  The  special  trust  created  would  be  admin- 
istered scrupulously  by  the  Trustees  of  the  University.  The  good 
results  would  be  far-reaching  and  enduring.  It  is  indeed  hard  to 
conceive  in  what  way  we,  whose  dearest  and  most  cherished  inter- 
ests will  be  affected  vitally  by  the  results  of  such  researches  as  will 
be  conducted  here,  can  better  display  our  sorrow  for  the  dead  and 
our  love  for  the  living  than  by  strengthening  the  resources  of  such 
institutions  as  this  which  is  to  be  opened  formally  to-day.  May  it 
long  endure  to  promote  the  interests  of  suffering  humanity  and  to 
enlarge  the  boundaries  of  medical  science.  I  beg  to  remain, 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  William  Pepper." 
139 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

"  The  letter  of  Dr.  Pepper's  which  I  have  read,"  added  Dr. 
Billings  in  closing,  "  needs  no  comment,  and  very  few  vi^ords  of 
praise  from  me  are  either  needful  or  proper  to  be  spoken  to  this 
audience  of  his  friends.  Broad  and  far  has  been  his  outlook  in  thus 
providing  for  the  future  a  heritage  of  power  which  mildew,  flame, 
and  frost  cannot  harm.  It  is  not  a  statue  or  carving  or  memorial 
arch  that  he  has  given,  things  that  will  blacken  and  moulder  and 
crumble  as  the  centuries  roll  by,  until  the  mills  of  the  gods  shall 
have  ground  them  to  dust.  It  is  a  perpetual  well-spring  of  force, 
a  storage  battery  which  will  fill  itself  and  give  out  warmth  and  light 
and  motion  so  long  as  this  institution  of  learning  shall  exist  on 
earth.  He  savs,  and  says  it  with  authority,  find  me  the  means  of 
making  the  lives  of  men  longer  and  more  efficient, — of  putting 
aside  the  plague  that  has  destroyed  our  fathers  and  brothers  and 
threatens  to  consume  our  children ;  his  demand  is  not  for  the  fruit 
which  is  known  and  harvested,  but  for  that  of  regions  yet  unknown 
and  unexplored,  for  which  he  provides  the  seed,  for  charts  of  dan- 
gerous bays  and  coast  lines  still  unsounded  and  not  yet  triangulated. 

"  The  taking  of  such  a  step  as  this  requires  not  only  the  oppor- 
tunity of  means,  but  also  wisdom,  courage,  faith  ;  wisdom,  as  re-  . 
gards  selection  of  the  unknown  regions  to  be  explored,  and  in  pro-  | 
viding  motive  power  and  guidance  for  the  work  to  be  done;  courage, 
in  investing  funds  in  an  enterprise  the  precise  results  of  which 
cannot  be  predicted ;  and  faith,  in  the  future  progress  of  science 
and  in  the  future  managers  of  this  important  trust. 

"  But  wisdom  shall  be  justified  by  her  children,  and  this  far- 
seeing,  bold-planning  man  of  the  silver  tongue  and  the  open  hand 
will  be  remembered  as  the  founder  of  the  first  distinctive  laboratory 
for  research  in  clinical  medicine  in  this  country  so  long  as  there 
are  sickness  and  death  among  the  children  of  men." 

The  Provost  of  the  University  formally  accepted  the  gift, 
and  the  exercises  closed  with  an  address  on  the  "  Evolution 
of  Modem  Scientific  Laboratories,"  by  William  D.  Welch, 

140 


JEt.  52]     PEPPER    CLINICAL    LABORATORY 

M.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Pathology  at  Johns    Hopkins 
University.^ 

Of  the  man  to  whom  the  Laboratory  was  erected  as  a 
memorial,  Dr.  Welch  said : 

**  William  Pepper  the  elder  was  a  very  distinguished  physician 
and  trusted  consultant  of  this  city,  for  many  years  an  attending 
physician  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  where  he  was  a  clinical 
teacher  of  great  influence,  and  for  four  years  the  Professor  of  the 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  this  University.  He  belonged 
to  that  remarkable  group  of  American  physicians,  trained  under 
Louis,  who  brought  to  this  country  the  best  methods  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  French  school  of  medicine  at  the  time  of  its  highest 
glory.  His  diagnostic  powers  are  said  to  have  been  remarkable. 
With  his  broad  sympathies,  his  high  ideals,  and  his  active  and 
enlightened  efforts  for  the  promotion  of  clinical  medicine,  how 
he  would  have  welcomed  such  opportunities  as  will  be  afforded  by 
this  Laboratory  to  contribute  to  a  better  knowledge  of  the  nature, 
the  diagnosis,  and  the  treatment  of  disease." 

The  unique  character  of  this  generous  memorial  founda- 
tion evoked  the  following  comment  from  Dr.  William  P. 
Gairdner,  of  the  University  of  Glasgow : 

"  The  '  No.  2'  of  the  William  Pepper  Laboratory  is  good  reading 
for  all  your  friends,  and  especially  so  for  me,  to  whom  you  have  on 
many  occasions  shown  such  marked  complimentary  kindness.  To 
have  had  the  means  of  exercising  such  liberality  and  to  have  had 
the  willingness  so  to  use  the  means  are  alike  a  glory  to  you  and  to 
your  University." " 

*  From  the  Pepper  Laboratory  of  Clinical  Medicine.  No.  2. 
Proceedings  at  the  Opening  of  the  William  Pepper  Laboratory  of 
Clinical  Medicine,  December  4,  1895,  with  an  illustration  of  the 
building.     31  pp. 

^  MS.  letter  to  Dr.  Pepper,  dated  Glasgow,  March  20,  1896. 

141 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1864-84 

It  may  be  said  that  the  Laboratory  remains  one  of  the  most 
cherished  creations  in  the  University  with  which  Dr.  Pepper's 
name  is  associated.  He  looked  upon  it  as  an  essential  con- 
tribution to  the  unity  of  the  Hospital  as  a  scientific  institution. 
It  crowned  the  work  which  he  had  begun  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury before.  Its  dedication  occurred  after  he  had  retired 
from  the  Provostship.  A  few  months  before  its  dedication 
he  sent  the  following  letter  to  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  containing  a  summary  of  his  financial  services  to 
the  Hospital : 

"  My  mind  had  been  occupied  lately  with  the  finances  of  the  Hos- 
pital, and,  as  I  had  been  largely  responsible  for  its  policy,  I  thought 
I  would  consult  the  records  and  add  together  the  sums  which  I  have 
actually  secured  toward  its  development  and  support.  I  find  that 
apart  from  the  land,  which  I  have  secured  by  a  tremendous  personal 
effort ;  and  apart  from  the  Legislative  appropriations  for  which  I 

was  responsible ;  and  apart  from  the  great  legacy  of  , 

which  must  soon  become  available,  I  have  actually  secured  for  the 
Hospital  five  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars,  which  has  been 
paid  in  cash.  This  does  not  include  very  small  subscriptions,  which 
would  doubtless  aggregate  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  dollars  addi- 
tional. 

**  Yours  sincerely, 

"  William  Pepper. 

"Samuel  Dickson,  Esq.,  May  20,  1895." 

Dr.  Pepper's  medical  writings  have  been  mentioned  as  they 
appeared,  and  of  some  a  contemporary  comment  has  been 
given.  He  wrote  upward  of  one  hundred  and  seventy 
contributions,  nearly  all  of  which  embodied  notes  of  cases 
arising  in  his  own  practice.  For  thirty-four  years,  1864- 
1 898,  he  was  engaged  in  an  ever-increasing  general  practice  ; 
had  he  been  a  specialist,  probably  he  would  have  written 

142 


JEt.  21-41]         PHYSICIAN  AND  WRITER 

more  ;  with  his  temperament  activity  was  a  necessity  of  life. 
His  period  of  greatest  production  was  from  1864  to  1884, 
— that  is,  from  his  twenty-first  to  his  forty-first  year.  After 
the  Centennial,  1876,  he  became  involved  in  educational 
and  civic  interests,  his  practice  increased  enormously,  and 
he  wrote  less  on  medicine  and  more  on  education. 

Like  law-books,  medical  writings  are  rarely  literature  and 
are  traditionally  short-lived.  Ten  years  for  a  medical  book  is 
equivalent  to  threescore  and  ten  for  human  life.  A  medical 
book  which  continues  an  authority  for  twenty  years  is  as 
rare  as  a  centenarian  among  men.  The  history  of  a  suc- 
cessful medical  treatise  is  usually  that  of  repeated  revisions. 
Physicians  are  eminently  devoted  to  the  new  things  of  their 
profession.  They  know  that  changes  are  constant,  and  out 
of  changes  and  experiments  oftentimes  comes  progress; 
nothing  is  more  hopelessly  valueless  than  a  medical  book 
which  is  behind  the  times. 

It  is  vouchsafed  to  few  men  to  write  books  that  live  and 
a  physician  can  hardly  hope  to  be  among  the  few.  His 
book  must  be  judged  by  a  different  standard  from  that  appli- 
cable to  works  of  history,  fiction,  or  poetry.  If  he  adds  how- 
ever so  little  to  the  treasured  experience  of  his  class,  he  justly 
ranks  high  among  men.  Nearly  every  great  medical  dis- 
covery has  been  the  utilization,  by  one  mind,  of  the  earlier 
labors  of  many  minds.  Medical  science  may  be  said  to  be 
the  correlation  of  wide  and  varied  experience  in  the  treat- 
ment of  diseases.  The  circulation  of  the  blood  had  been 
suspected  before  Harvey  saw  it.  Inoculation,  as  Jenner 
gave  it  to  the  world,  was  largely  the  result  of  earlier  experi- 
ments by  men  now  forgotten.  Pasteur's  experiments  with 
microbes  were  antedated  by  innumerable  cases  of  germicidal 
treatment. 

143 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1864-98 

It  seems  to  be  reserved  to  a  few  men  to  co-ordinate  the 
work  of  the  ages.  Such  men  are  Columbus,  Helmholtz, 
Sir  Humphry  Davy,  Newton,  Harvey,  Jenner,  and  Pasteur. 
Meanwhile,  other  men  are  wonderful  practitioners  ;  but  even 
the  fame  of  Sir  James  Simpson,  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  of 
Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  of  Dr.  Physick,  a  fame  which  in  their 
time  filled  the  world,  becomes  a  flickering  memory  in  the 
minds  of  posterity.  It  may  be  said  that  no  physician  wins, 
equal  fame  as  writer  and  practitioner.  I 

It  is  more  difficult  to  measure  the  services  of  a  practitioner 
than  those  of  a  medical  writer.  Dr.  Pepper  was  practitioner, 
writer,  and  teacher.  He  lectured  at  the  University  continu- 
ously for  thirty  years,  imparting  instruction  the  while  to 
upward  of  twelve  thousand  students.  Though  it  is  no 
criterion  of  him  as  a  physician,  it  may  be  added  that  during 
his  long  career  he  treated  above  thirty-five  thousand  cases. . 
During  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  the  volume  of  his 
practice  was  prodigious  and  came  from  all  parts  of  America, 
including  South  America  and  the  West  Indies,  and  from 
Europe.  He  was  much  in  demand  as  a  consultant  and  was 
frequently  called  upon  to  make  long  and  rapid  journeys. 
Travelling  by  special  train  or  special  car  was  a  common 
incident  in  his  professional  life. 

In  his  treatment  of  the  sick  it  was  his  study  to  get  on  the 
side  of  nature.  He  trusted  much  to  rest  and  regimen,  and, 
primarily,  to  getting  the  mind  of  the  patient  in  a  normal 
frame.  He  was  by  nature  a  psychologist  and  his  powers  ot 
diagnosis  were  of  the  highest  order.  These  powers  he  ap- 
plied in  other  interests  than  his  medical  practice.  Each  of 
the  innumerable  civic  and  educational  problems  which  came 
before  him  was   met  as  he  met   the   critical   medical  cases 

which  were  presented  to  him  for  diagnosis.     His  reasoning 

144 


JEt.  21-55]       PHYSICIAN   AND    WRITER 

faculties  were  wonderfully  strong,  active,  and  accurate.  "  It 
is  far  easier  to  know  something  about  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,"  remarks  a  distinguished  philosophical  writer,^  "  than 
to  have  any  adequate  knowledge  of  the  medical  aspects  of 
the  case  of  an  individual  man  whose  circulation  is  in  any 
way  deranged  by  disease.  It  is  precisely  the  individual  case 
that  constitutes  the  goal  of  the  physician's  knowledge."  It 
was  Dr.  Pepper's  faculty  to  know  the  individual  case  and  to 
reach  the  goal.  His  insight  was  science.  He  seized  on 
causes  and  effects  readily  and  with  almost  unerring  precision, 
and  his  mental  processes  were  phenomenally  rapid. 

With  these  powers  he  exercised  an  inspiring  sympathy 
which  quickly  won  confidence.  A  patient  felt  safe  under 
his  care.  His  manner  towards  his  patients  was  marked. 
Those  who  did  not  understand  him  thought  him  a  man- 
nerist; all  explicable  by  his  rule  of  conduct  to  become 
deeply  interested  in  the  welfare  of  every  person  with  whom 
he  had  dealings.  Thus  he  kept  his  patients  ever  in 
mind  and  constantly  and  freely  wrote  to  them  little  notes 
of  encouragement.  A  patient  living  in  an  obscure  village 
of  Pennsylvania  would  receive  a  delightful  note  from  him 
while  he  was  in  California.  The  unknown  country  doctor 
who  had  called  him  in  consultation  would  receive  a  long 
letter  commending  his  treatment  and  his  theory  of  the  case. 
Dr.  Pepper  kept  everybody  in  good  cheer.  His  coming  into 
the  sick-room  was  like  the  coming  of  sunshine.  His  con- 
sideration was  illustrated  during  a  critical  illness  of  Rev.  Dr. 
H.  V.  Hilprecht,  the  distinguished  archaeologist,  a  professor 
at  the  University.     Mrs.  Hilprecht  was  in  Germany,  sick 


^  The  World  and  the  Individual,  by  Josiah  Royce,  Ph.D.,  vol.  i. 
p.  456. 

10  143 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

with  anxiety  for  her  husband.  Dr.  Pepper  wrote  to  her  daily 
of  the  condition  of  her  husband  and  of  his  progress  towards 
recovery.  To  do  such  a  kindness  would  never  have  occurred 
to  a  less  sympathetic  and  less  busy  physician. 

Not  the  least  attraction  of  Dr.  Pepper  was  his  personal 
appearance.  His  face  was  strong,  mobile,  and  fine,  and  the 
"  Pepper  smile"  has  become  a  tradition  in  Philadelphia.  He 
dressed  with  faultless  taste  and  carried  about  with  him  an 
exhilarating  atmosphere  of  freshness  and  sweetness. 

His  gratuitous  practice  was  enormous,  and  he  gave  the 
same  care  to  a  poor  as  to  a  rich  patient.  Again  and  again 
he  declined  to  accept  fees  from  academic  men.  The  Uni- 
versity Faculty  may  be  said  to  have  belonged  to  his  medical 
family.  A  notable  instance  was  his  treatment  of  Professor 
Alexander  Johnston,  of  Princeton.  He  attended  this  emi- 
nent man,  as  he  did  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  without 
charge.  To  physicians  and  teachers  his  fees  were  remitted 
or  were  nominal. 

It  is  not  strange  that  he  was  endeared  to  a  multitude  of 
people.  His  practice  was  remunerative  and  he  utilized  it  for 
the  public  welfare,  which  may  be  stated  a  little  more  plainly 
in  this  wise.  During  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  his  life  he 
gave  away  upward  of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  all  of 
which  he  earned.  Most  of  this  was  given  to  the  University. 
For  years  he  was  a  money-earning  machine  for  this  great 
institution.  His  salary  as  professor  and  as  Provost  he  ex- 
pended many  times  over  for  the  institution.  Had  he  devoted 
all  his  energies  solely  to  the  practice  of  medicine  for  mer- 
cenary ends,  one  hesitates  to  say  how  much  he  might  have 
earned. 

At  the  memorial  meeting  held  in  the  chapel  of  the  Uni- 
versity on  November  29,  1898,  Dr.  Pepper's  successor  to 

146 


^T.  55]  PHYSICIAN    AND    WRITER 

the  Chair  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine,  James 
Tyson,  M.D.,  made  an  address  on  behalf  of  the  Medical  Fac- 
ulty, in  which  he  related  his  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Pepper 
and  gave  some  interesting  information  concerning  him  as 
physician  and  medical  writer. 

"  The  elder  Pepper's  method  of  diagnosis  was  to  make  a  patient 
and  exhaustive  examination  of  the  case,  weighing  each  symptom  and 
physical  sign,  and  after  careful  reflection  cautiously  to  draw  con- 
clusions. These  were  always  well  founded  and  rarely  changed. 
The  younger  Pepper's  diagnosis  was  more  rapid,  more  brilliant,  and 
was  usually  sustained  by  the  autopsy,  though  sometimes  corrected 
by  it.  His  quickness  in  recognizing  a  morbid  condition  and  its 
causes  was  surprising,  and  he  rarely  erred  in  his  diagnosis  of  the 
consequences  which  were  likely  to  follow.  His  powers  here  were 
in  part  a  result  of  his  training  while  a  close  student  of  morbid 
anatomy  in  his  early  practice.  It  was  his  habit  to  conceive  the 
morbid  state  which  would  naturally  follow  the  symptoms  of  the 
case  in  hand.  He  was  not  dogmatic  in  diagnosis,  but  very  keenly 
alive  to  the  possibility  of  error  and  ready  to  acknowledge  his 
mistakes. 

"  Even  more  striking  than  his  power  of  diagnosis  was  his  power 
to  encourage  and  uplift  those  who  consulted  him.  His  capacity 
here  amounted  to  genius  and  was  utilized  by  the  whole  as  well  as 
by  the  sick." 

Dr.  Tyson's  comment  on  this  capacity  of  Dr.  Pepper 
might  be  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  hundreds  who  at 
critical  times  came  to  him  for  encouragement,  and  the  list 
would  be  found  to  include  men  and  women  in  every  calling 
in  life.  He  seemed  never  to  be  discouraged.  His  capacity 
for  perennial  cheerfulness  was  one  of  the  principal  resources 
of  his  remarkable  energy  and  efficiency.  In  his  treatment 
of  the  sick,  Dr.  Tyson  remarks,  he  was  not  lavish  in  the  use 

147 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

of  drugs  and  that  his  prescriptions  were  simple  and  his  direc- 
tions to  his  patients  expUcit.  He  was  careful  in  the  selec- 
tion of  the  patient's  diet,  and  highly  successful  with  diseases 
of  the  stomach  and  bowels.  Indeed,  in  treating  diseases 
of  these  organs,  he  had  the  skill  and  the  reputation  of  a 
specialist. 

As  a  teacher  he  spoke  as  one  having  authority.  He  was 
naturally  an  investigator  and  a  teacher.  His  early  practice 
was  substantially  a  prolonged  residence  in  the  hospital.  After 
his  father's  death,  which  occurred  in  1 864,  it  will  be  recalled 
that  he  entered  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  as  resident  physi- 
cian, and  served  there  eighteen  months.^  He  did  this  to 
secure  the  best  possible  foundation  for  his  future  work ;  and 
here  he  showed  his  character  and  foresight.  Many  a  young 
physician  who  had  already  launched  into  practice  without 
the  name  and  fame  of  a  distinguished  father  behind  him 
considered  it  unnecessary  to  return  to  hospital  work,  and,  as 
it  were,  start  afresh.  At  the  hospital  he  was  an  enthusiastic 
worker,  giving  himself  no  rest.  In  the  early  years  of  his 
practice  he  showed  the  same  qualities,  notably  the  love  of 
activity  which  distinguished  him  in  later  life. 

In  teaching  clinical  medicine  he  had  no  superior,  and  he 
attracted  students  and  patients  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
His  Saturday  clinics  were  frequently  made  up  of  cases  which 
had  been  thus  assembled  from  far  and  near  for  the  benefit  of 
his  opinion.  No  matter  how  difficult  the  case,  he  never  hesi- 
tated to  take  it  up,  and  he  never  failed  to  diagnose  it  to  the 
edification  of  the  class.  He  possessed  a  faculty  of  speech 
which  he  himself  confessed  was  at  times  a  disadvantage.  He 
could  talk  most  instructively  and  entertainingly  even  when 


'  From  April,  1865,10  October,  1866. 
148 


^T.  55]  PHYSICIAN   AND   WRITER 

he  had  nothing  to  say.  The  testimony  of  thousands  of 
medical  students  is  to  the  grace  and  simphcity  of  his  manner, 
to  the  music  of  his  voice,  and  to  the  fluency  of  his  speech. 

He  had  a  lofty  conception  of  the  function  of  a  physi- 
cian, and  he  constantly  labored  to  make  possible  for  medical 
students  a  broad  and  liberal  culture  in  literature,  science,  and 
art.  He  firmly  believed  in  a  preliminary  college  training 
for  medical  men,  and  throughout  life  he  grieved  that  his 
own  preparation  in  the  liberal  arts  had  not  been  more  ample 
than  the  American  college  course  of  his  early  life  made  pos- 
sible. Thousands  knew  him  as  a  medical  lecturer,  but  a 
greater  number  knew  him  as  an  authority  in  medical  litera- 
ture. Not  all  the  pamphlets  he  published  were  extraordinary 
or  of  great  value.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  seventy,  more  or 
less,  probably  two-thirds  are  no  more  than  accurate  records 
of  important  cases,  such  as  any  physician  in  large  practice 
may  make.  In  his  earlier  career  he  made  several  important 
original  contributions,  growing  out  of  his  own  investigations. 
Of  these  mention  has  already  been  made. 

Dr.  James  Tyson,  in  his  memorial  address  before  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  gave  the  following  esti- 
mate of  Dr.  Pepper  as  a  teacher  and  as  a  physician : 

"  As  a  teacher  Dr.  Pepper's  greatest  power  lay  in  the  clinical 
lecture.  He  was  rapid  in  his  examination  of  a  case ;  quickly 
recognized  distinctive  features,  and  promptly  drew  conclusions ; 
was  at  times  almost  instinctive  in  his  diagnosis,  a  great  contrast  in 
this  respect  to  his  father,  a  laborious  and  exhaustive  investigator, 
who  seldom  erred.  In  addressing  students  he  (the  younger  Pepper) 
was  impressive  and  authoritative,  and  they,  as  well  as  patients, 
remembered  what  he  enjoined.  His  prescriptions  were  simple,  but 
his  directions  were  explicit  and  emphatic.  As  a  practising  physi- 
cian he  was  hopeful  and  encouraging, — according  to  the  views  of 

149 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

some,  too  much  so, — but  his  encouraging  opinions  were  the  natural 
result  of  his  hopeful  nature,  and  not  assumed.  He  could  not  take  a 
discouraging  view  of  anything."  ^ 

Dr.  Pepper  could  be  eloquent  even  on  medical  subjects. 
He  never  hesitated  to  enter  upon  the  preparation  of  a  public 
address  because  its  preparation  would  involve  exacting  re- 
search. Like  William  Pitt,  he  knew  how  to  utilize  the 
labors  of  others.  The  effectiveness  of  this  sort  of  prepara- 
tion was  well  illustrated  in  his  Presidential  Address  before 
the  first  Pan-American  Medical  Congress,  in  1893.  In  this 
address  he  presumed  to  discuss  a  no  less  difficult  subject 
than  the  state  of  America  and  its  inhabitants  at  the  time  of 
its  discovery  by  Columbus ;  the  obstacles  which  delayed  the 
great  explorer ;  and  the  brave  men  who  completed  his  work, 
together  with  the  state  of  medical  science  in  Europe  in  1492 
and  the  spirit  which  directed  its  later  course.  Dr.  Pepper's 
presentation  of  the  subject  was  so  admirable  as  to  awaken 
the  enthusiasm  and  admiration  of  the  representatives  fi-om 
British  and  Spanish  America,  and  it  so  greatly  enhanced  his 
reputation  as  to  evoke  the  remarkable  reception  which  was 
given  him  in  the  City  of  Mexico  at  the  second  triennial 
meeting  of  the  Congress.  The  Congress  itself  was  a  monu- 
ment to  his  ability  as  an  organizer;  and  the  two  massive 
volumes  of  nearly  twelve  hundred  pages  which  contain,  in 
English  and  Spanish,  its  Transactions  abundantly  attest  how 
successful  it  became. 

In  the  medical  societies  of  the  United  States  he  took  a 
warm  interest  and  he  was  the  constant  recipient  of  acknowl- 


t 


^  Memoir  of  the  late  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  by  James 
Tyson,  April  3,  1901. 

ISO 


.^T.  55]  PHYSICIAN    AND   WRITER 

edgments  from  them  of  their  appreciation  of  his  professional 
work.  In  many  of  these  societies  he  held  office,  and  sev- 
eral of  his  most  important  medical  papers  were  read  before 
them.  He  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
in  1867,  and  for  thirty  years  took  an  active  interest  in  its 
proceedings.  In  1897  he  organized  a  company  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  a  higher  class  of  medical  journals  in 
Philadelphia,  and  with  his  usual  sagacity  he  proceeded  to  in- 
terest and  win  the  support  of  all  the  medical  schools  in  Phil- 
adelphia, of  the  profession  at  large,  and  of  a  class  that  had 
never  been  interested  before — prominent  business  men,  other 
than  publishers  of  medical  books.  On  Saturday,  January  1, 
1898,  the  first  number  of  The  Philadelphia  Medical  Journal 
appeared.  It  quickly  took  rank  among  medical  journals  and 
remains  a  monument  to  Dr.  Pepper's  public  spirit  and 
energy.  Had  he  done  no  more  than  his  great  work  as  a 
medical  teacher,  writer,  and  practitioner  his  career  would 
have  been  remarkable.  But  that,  in  addition  to  all  he  ac- 
complished as  a  medical  man,  he  should  have  done  what  he 
did  in  education,  in  civil  affairs,  and  in  the  advancement  of 
science,  and  all  within  the  twenty- five  years  of  his  more  active 
life,  is  truly  marvellous. 

Conceived  in  the  like  spirit  of  discernment  were  the  words 
of  Dr.  William  Osier,  spoken  in  an  address  delivered  by  him 
at  the  opening  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School,  in 
October,  1898:^ 

"  Were  I  asked  to  name  the  most  satisfactory  single  piece 
of  work  in  Dr.  Pepper's  life,  I  should  say  unhesitatingly  that 
which  related  to  the  promotion  of  higher  medical  education ;"  and 


*  In  Memoriam — William  Pepper,  by  William  Osier,  M.D.    Tht 
Philadelphia  Medical  Journal^  Mzrch.  18,  1899. 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

he  cited  the  two  addresses  of  which  an  account  has  already  been 
given,  one  delivered  October  i,  1877,  the  other  October  2,  1893. 
"  They  represent  a  forecast  and  retrospect.  At  the  time  of  the  re- 
moval of  the  University  to  West  Philadelphia,  the  University  Fac- 
ulty was  a  strong  one,  but  it  contained  a  number  of  men  who  were 
saturated  with  old-time  prejudices  and  who  were  bitterly  opposed  to 
any  change  in  methods  of  medical  education.  Once  before,  in 
1846,  the  University  had  made  an  attempt  to  elevate  the  standard 
of  medical  education,  but  unsuccessfully.  In  187 1  the  Harvard 
medical  faculty  had  been  taken  in  hand  and  reorganized  so  that  the 
example  had  been  set,  but  there  was  probably  no  school  in  the  Union 
in  which  the  outlook  for  reform  was  thought  to  be  less  hopeful  than 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  struggle  was  a  hard  one 
and  the  brunt  of  it  fell  upon  the  young  men,  and  more  particularly 
on  Pepper,  who  was  the  very  head  and  front  of  the  new  movement. 
The  plan  of  reorganization  was  not  carried  out  without  much  bitter- 
ness. The  movement  was  immediately  successful  and  the  changes 
then  made  were  but  precursors  of  others  more  radical.  It  was 
always  a  source  of  great  satisfaction  to  Dr.  Pepper  to  feel  that 
the  plan  for  which  he  had  worked  so  hard  had  been  crowned  with 
success.  Years  hence  these  two  addresses  will  be  regarded  as  per- 
haps the  most  valuable  single  contributions  to  the  literature  of  the 
phenomenal  educational  movement  through  which  we  have  lived 
during  the  latter  part  of  this  century." 

The  energy  with  which  he  took  up  the  extension  of  the 
medical  course  at  the  University  in  1877  characterizes  every 
later  undertaking  of  his  life.  The  University  could  not  fail 
to  respond  to  his  transforming  power.  Public  libraries  and 
great  museums,  which  are  now  free  to  all,  sprang  up  under 
his  magical  touch.  Men  of  vast  wealth  under  his  inspiring 
influence  poured  forth  their  treasures  like  water.  The  medi- 
cal profession  in  every  country  has  produced  men  of  first 
rank,  but  seldom  has  a  medical  man  risen  high  in  the  coun- 

152 


^T.  55]  PHYSICIAN   AND   WRITER 

cils  of  a  nation  or  accomplished  a  great  work  in  public 
affairs.  Dr.  Pepper  maintained,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  close 
relations  with  his  profession,  both  as  a  consultant  and  as  a 
teacher ;  attended  with  conscientiousness  to  a  large  and  ex- 
acting practice,  and  amidst  the  multitudinous  cares  and 
duties  incident  to  it  maintained  a  dominant  and  creative 
influence  in  all  public  affairs  of  his  native  city  and  State. 
There  is  no  precedent  in  the  annals  of  medicine  of  another 
physician  of  first  rank  attaining  equal  influence  and  accom- 
plishing so  great  results  in  education  and  in  the  foundation 
of  public  institutions  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  science 
and  art. 


153 


I 


Part  II 
THE  EDUCATOR 


I 


I 

THE    UNIVERSITY 
1862-1881 

THE  University,  during  Dr.  Pepper's  college  days 
and  for  some  time  afterward,  w  is,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Medical  Department,  merely  a  local 
institution.  Provost  Goodwin  believed  that  Philadelphia 
had  about  one  hundred  young  men,  who  were  disposed  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  of  getting  a  college  ed- 
ucation, and  that  this  number  was  not  likely  to  vary  much, 
notwithstanding  the  increase  of  the  population.  Changes 
in  public  opinion  respecting  the  best  kind  of  education  did 
not  seem  to  him  likely  to  produce  a  modification  of  the 
existing  system.  The  service  done  by  the  University  he 
regarded  as  its  true,  complete  work,  which  it  was  doing  well, 
even  if  this  work  was  not  appreciated  as  it  should  be  by 
the  community ;  hence  no  change  was  possible  or  desirable.^ 
With  this  opinion  of  Provost  Goodwin,  Professor  Coppee, 
who,  soon  after  Pepper's  graduation,  left  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  and  went  to  Lehigh  University,  agreed.  The 
Trustees  could  not  be  induced  to  initiate  changes  looking 
to  any  enlargement  of  the  plan ;  indeed  they  "  were  wholly 
indifferent  to  the  subject,  making  no  effort  to  understand  the 
practical  workings  of  the  system  by  study  or  observation, 


*  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost  (Chades  J.  Stille,  LL.D.),  1866- 
i88o,  prirately  printed,  p.  5. 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1862 

and  were,  in  fact,  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the  Faculty, 
a  number  of  which,  for  that  very  reason,  avoided  as  much  as 
possible  conferring  with  them  on  University  matters/  This 
was  the  outlook  in  the  fall  of  1866.  The  course  of  study 
at  the  time  "  was  substantially  that  which  had  been  estab- 
lished for  more  than  a  century." 

Several  efforts  had  been  made  to  improve  the  system,  but 
they  had  all  failed  after  trials  more  or  less  earnest,  because 
the  scheme  had  proved  impracticable,  owing  either  to  want 
of  support  by  the  public  or  to  lack  of  co-operation  by  the 
Trustees  and  professors.  The  fatal  defect  of  a  vicious  or- 
ganization in  the  governing  body  (the  Trustees)  made  itself 
felt  in  every  department  of  the  University,  and  the  want  of 
money  to  give  any  experiment  of  improved  instruction  a  fair 
trial  was  only  one,  and  by  no  means  the  worst,  result  of  this 
defective  organization.' 

For  more  than  eighty  years  only  one  donation,  or  legacy, 
and  that  of  only  five  thousand  dollars,  had  been  received, 
"  the  income  of  which  was  to  be  devoted  to  provide  instruc- 
tion in  drawing,"  a  subject  then  not  taught  in  the  University. 
The  number  of  undergraduate  students  had  been  for  many 
years  less  than  one  hundred,  and  every  one  seemed  discour- 
aged and  hopeless  ;  dry  rot  was  everywhere.  "  No  spirit  of 
improvement ;  no  symptom  of  active  life  was  visible  either  in 
the  Trustees  or  professors  in  1866.  The  ancient  languages, 
mathematics  as  far  as  the  calculus,  some  elementary  chemistry 
and  physics,  some  little  intellectual  and  moral  philosophy, 
and  some  very  superficial  instruction  in  rhetoric  and  English 


*  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost  (Charles  J.  Stille,  LL.D.),  1866- 
1880,  privately  printed,  p.  5. 
'  Id.,  p.  6. 

•  158 


JEt.  19]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

literature  made  up  the  curriculum  ;"  which,  it  is  proper  to 
say,  was  established  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  by 
Provost  Smith  in  1 756,  as  a  four-years'  course,  before  it  was 
adopted  by  any  other  American  college.  "  The  professors 
were  all  thoroughly  conscientious  and  competent  men,  and 
some  of  them  excellent  teachers.  In  their  instruction  thev 
labored  under  many  disadvantages,  the  greatest,  perhaps 
being  that  of  the  very  early  age  at  which  the  boys  were  ad- 
mitted, and  the  want  of  thorough,  proper  training  in  a  school 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  University." 

The  Academy  from  which  the  University  sprang  had 
always  been  regarded  as  the  true  feeder  of  the  University,  but 
was  discontinued  about  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war,  and  the  students  came  from  various  private  schools 
whose  methods  of  instruction  were  different,  and  over  which 
the  University  Faculty  had  no  control.  "  The  consequence," 
says  Provost  Stille,  "  was  that  the  preparatory  schools,  not 
the  University,  practically  settled  the  standard  of  admission." 
The  most  striking  feature  of  the  University,  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  "  was  the  evident  disposition  to  adhere  rigidly  to 
mere  routine  in  matters  of  instruction  and  discipline  and  the 
utter  absence  of  all  enthusiasm  or  interest  in  the  reputation 
of  the  College."  There  was  little  sympathy  between  the 
Board  and  the  Faculty.  Indeed,  the  feeling  towards  the 
Board  was  rather  one  of  bitterness  and  hostility.  "  The 
professors  were  not  consulted  upon  subjects  of  which  they 
alone  had  any  practical  knowledge,  or  at  least  their  advice, 
if  asked,  was  never  heeded,  and  as  to  taking  the  initiative  in 
any  scheme  of  general  reform,  such  a  proceeding  would  have 
been  looked  upon  as  a  case  of  lese-majeste.  The  professors 
had  been  so  long  regarded  and  treated  as  clerks  and  mere 
employes  by  the  trustees  that  they  had  lost  all  spirit  of  resist- 

159 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1866 

ance  and  had  become  contented,  perforce,  to  stick  to  their 
routine  duties." 

Two  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  Frederick  Fraley 
and  John  Welsh,  both  of  whom  were  members  while  Pepper 
was  an  undergraduate,  regretted  the  condition  of  affairs  and 
realized  the  need  of  reform.  Mr.  Welsh  in  particular  ex- 
pressed himself  as  long  having  been  dissatisfied  with  the 
existing  system  and  willing  to  co-operate  with  the  Faculty, 
or  others,  in  introducing  and  maintaining  a  more  enlarged 
system,  but  he  had  received  no  support  from  the  Faculty. 
He  was  discouraged.  Mr.  Fraley  agreed  with  him  fully  and 
lamented  the  low  state  of  the  University.  This  was  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  four  years  after  Pepper  graduated.  It  had 
been  no  better  during  his  college  days.  That  the  condition 
of  the  University  did  not  escape  the  eyes  of  undergraduates 
is  hinted  at  in  Pepper's  remark  to  his  friend  and  classmate 
Burk.  Little  did  either  of  them  then  know  that  on  the 
foundations  which  Provost  Stille  was  laying,  and  largely 
because  of  the  reforms  which  he  inaugurated  from  1866  to 
1880,  William  Pepper  was  one  day  to  build  up  a  great 
University. 

At  the  time  William  Pepper  graduated  fi-om  Pennsylvania 
the  principal  subject  of  discussion  at  American  educational 
centres  was  the  elective  system  of  college  studies.  The  sys- 
tem was  soon  carried  beyond  the  field  of  mere  discussion, 
for  Harvard  College  adopted  and  thus  gave  standing  to  the 
innovation.  At  Pennsylvania  the  change  was  advocated  by 
Professor  Stille  and  less  ardently  by  some  of  his  colleagues. 
The  difficulty  in  the  way  of  effecting  the  change  there  was 
twofold, — the  conservatism  of  many  of  the  older  professors 
and  the  poverty  of  the  University.  The  relations  between 
the  Faculty  and  Board  of  Trustees,  as  has  been  explained, 

160 


^T.  23]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

were  remote  and  somewhat  hostile.  The  Board  never  con- 
sulted the  professors,  and  they  did  not  attempt  to  initiate 
improvements.  The  little  life  of  the  University  followed  a 
petty  routine.  Yet,  when  Dr.  Stille  joined  the  Faculty  of 
Arts  in  September,  1866,  he  had  buoyant  hopes  that  the 
relations  of  the  Board  and  the  Faculty  might  be  placed  on  a 
better  footing. 

Many  reforms  were  imperative,  but  the  long  habit  of 
doing  mere  routine  work  had  so  undone  the  Faculty  that 
it  was  practically  incapable  of  taking  the  initiative  in  any 
enterprise ;  therefore,  Dr.  Stille  turned  to  the  Board,  and 
particularly  to  Mr.  John  Welsh,  urging  that  a  more  liberal 
system  of  education  be  adopted.  Fully  aware  of  the  many 
limitations  of  the  school,  Dr.  Stille  proposed  only  moderate 
changes  at  first,  and  chiefly  that  elective  systems  of  studies 
should  be  adopted,  but  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  bring 
the  educational  work  of  the  school  into  hopeless  confusion. 
Mr.  Welsh  heartily  sympathized  with  this  programme,  no 
small  part  of  which  consisted  merely  in  adding  the  modern 
languages  to  the  old  curriculum  and  the  extension  of  the 
course  in  history  and  in  English  literature.  Dr.  Stille  made 
himself  the  go-between  and  found  that  nearly  all  the  pro- 
fessors were  favorably  disposed  towards  the  change.  The 
result  was  the  unanimous  approval  of  the  elective  system  by 
the  Faculty,  in  December,  1866,  and  its  heartily  unanimous 
approval  by  the  Trustees  in  January  following.  But  the 
adoption  of  the  system  implied  an  increase  in  the  teaching 
force,  the  expenditure  of  much  money,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  Department  of  Practical  Science.  To  bring  all  these 
things  about,  the  Board  appointed  a  large  committee,  of 
which  Mr.  Welsh  was  chairman,  to  raise  an  endowment  fund 
of  half  a  million.  Within  a  few  weeks  about  fifty  thousand 
II  161 


WILLIAiM    PEPPER  [1868 

dollars  were  pledged,  mostly  on  condition  that  the  entire  sum 
be  raised  within  a  year ;  but  the  work  soon  lagged,  and  the 
burden  of  raising  the  money  fell  wholly  on  Mr.  Welsh  and 
Mr.  Frederick  Fraley. 

The  elective  system  was  to  go  into  effect  in  1867,  at  the 
opening  of  the  college  year,  by  which  time,  it  was  hoped, 
the  endowment  would  be  raised.  Additional  professors  and 
instructors  in  the  languages  were  secured  and  the  increased 
interest  which  the  new  system  awoke  among  the  students 
soon  demonstrated  its  value.  If  the  Faculty  had  been 
doubtful  of  the  wisdom  of  the  change,  the  new  spirit  which 
it  excited  convinced  the  most  conservative  among  them  that 
the  University  had  adopted  a  wise  policy  when  it  effected 
the  change  from  the  traditional  four-years  course  introduced 
by  Provost  Smith  nearly  a  century  before. 

The  location  of  the  University  in  a  great  mining  and 
manufacturing  State  gave  it  unequalled  opportunities  for 
imparting  instruction  in  the  sciences.  Dr.  Stille  hoped  that 
the  impulse  towards  improvement  would  include  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  school  of  instruction  in  the  mechanic  arts ;  but 
the  response  to  the  appeal  for  endowment  was  so  slow,  and 
the  pubhc  apparently  so  unmindful  of  the  University,  that 
even  Mr.  Welsh,  whose  influence  in  Philadelphia  at  this 
time  was  unsurpassed,  was  disposed,  in  1868,  to  abandon 
further  effort  to  raise  the  money.  At  this  time  the  Provost, 
Dr.  Goodwin,  in  addition  to  his  duties  at  the  University, 
filled  a  professorship  at  the  Divinity  School  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  Philadelphia.  Some  thought  that  he 
neglected  the  University  and  that  he  should  resign  either 
the  divinity  professorship  or  the  office  of  Provost.  He  was 
disposed  to  do  neither,  and  continued  to  serve  both  institu- 
tions with  divided  attention.     About  this  time,  in  order  to 

162 


JEt.  25]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

excite  public  interest  in  the  University,  Dr.  Stille  wrote  a 
brief  biography  of  the  first  Provost  of  the  University,  Dr. 
William  Smith,  the  chief  purpose  of  the  book  being  to 
show  the  high  reputation  and  wide  influence  of  the  school 
before  the  Revolution.  He  hoped  to  appeal  to  the  pride 
of  Philadelphia  and  thus  to  awaken  its  generosity ;  but  his 
attempt  failed,  and  the  endowment  seemed  as  far  off  as  ever. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  winter  of  1867  was  the  most 
gloomy  period  in  the  history  of  the  University  and  marked  a 
crisis  in  its  affairs.  The  light,  however,  unexpectedly  broke 
in  the  spring  of  1868,  when  it  was  suggested  that  the 
endowment  fund  might  be  raised  with  the  assistance  of  the 
city.  This  hint  came  to  Mr.  Welsh  and  Dr.  Stille  from  a 
man  of  much  public  spirit  and  possessing  the  confidence  of 
the  people,  Mr.  Nathanial  B.  Browne.  "  The  city,"  says  Dr. 
Stille  in  his  account  of  the  affair,  "  should  be  asked  to  give 
to  the  University  twenty-five  or  thirty  acres  of  the  Almshouse 
Farm,  in  West  Philadelphia,  a  portion  of  which  might  be 
used  as  a  site  for  the  erection  of  buildings  suitable  for  the 
proposed  enlarged  system  of  instruction,  including  a  scientific 
school ;  and  the  rest  might  be  sold,  as  occasion  might  present, 
at  the  value  increased  by  the  erection  of  a  handsome  college 
building  in  the  neighborhood;  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  to  be 
paid  into  the  endowment  fund."^  This  proved  to  be  a 
working  scheme.  It  was  believed  that  the  city  authorities 
would  give  their  consent,  and  for  the  first  time  there  was 
promise  of  raising  the  fund.  The  Trustees  took  up  the 
matter,  and  at  their  meeting  in  June  appointed  a  special 
committee  to  inquire  "  into  the  expediency  of  procuring  a 
new  site  for  the  University." 


^  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  p.  17. 
163 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1868 

At  this  time  Provost  Goodwin  somewhat  unexpectedly 
resigned.  It  was  soon  known  that  the  managers  of  the 
Divinity  School  desired  him  to  devote  his  entire  time  and 
labor  to  his  chair  in  that  institution,  and,  its  duties  being  more 
agreeable  to  him  than  those  of  Provost,  he  conformed  to  their 
wishes.  On  July  5,  1868,  Charles  J.  Stille,  LL.D.,  was  unan- 
imously elected  Provost.  He  interpreted  his  election  "  as  a 
pledge,  on  the  part  of  the  Board  to  the  public,  that  the  en- 
dowment should  be  completed,  new  buildings  erected,  and  a 
scientific  school  established."^  His  ambition  was  to  bring 
the  University  forward  to  rank  wath  Harvard,  Yale,  and 
Princeton,  whose  Presidents  then  constituted  the  academic 
triumvirate  of  the  country.  But  Dr.  Stille  soon  learned  the 
difficulties  and  the  hopelessness  of  his  task.  Each  of  these 
three  college  Presidents  possessed  the  power  as  well  as  the 
insignia  of  office ;  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  quite  destitute  of  both.  His  position  was  anoma- 
lous. He  was  the  nominal  head  of  the  University,  "with 
no  connection  with  or  control  over  the  Departments  of  Medi- 
cine and  Law ;  he  was  the  head  of  only  one  Faculty — 
that  of  Arts.  And  even  there  his  influence  on  the  general 
policy  of  the  Board  so  far  as  his  own  Department  was  con- 
cerned was  extremely  limited.  He  was  not  a  member  of 
the  Board  nor  permitted  to  be  present  at  its  meetings.  He 
might  suggest  changes  in  writing,  but  he  was  not  permitted 
to  explain  or  defend  his  views.  He  addressed  a  body  not 
only  unfamiliar  with  college  organization,  but,  taken  as  they 
were  from  their  own  business  an  hour  each  month  to  con- 
sider University  business,  incapable  of  taking  any  active,  in- 
telligent, and  persistent  part  in  measures  to  improve  it.     It  is 

^  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  p.  18. 
164 


JEt.  25]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

not  to  be  wondered  at  that,  knowing  the  difficulties  of  the 
subject,  he  despaired  of  any  practical  aid  from  such  a  body 
in  furthering  schemes  of  enlargement  and  reform ;  that, 
therefore,  he  seldom  used  the  power  which  the  by-laws  gave 
him  of  suggesting  changes  which  should  be  at  all  radical, 
for  he  knew  that  his  voice  would  not  be  heeded.  He  felt 
the  humiliation  of  being  a  mere  employe  of  the  Trustees — 
a  professor  with  another  name,  without  that  official  authority 
which  the  heads  of  other  colleges  wielded  with  such  good 
results."  ^  This  system  of  administration,  which  excluded  a 
recognized  and  efficient  head  of  the  University,  had  produced 
most  ruinous  results  throughout  its  history.  The  sluggish- 
ness of  the  institution  during  the  student  days  of  William 
Pepper  was  due  to  a  fatal  defect  in  its  organization.  Pepper 
had  touched  the  weak  spot  when  he  remarked  to  Burk : 
"  This  can  never  be  a  real  University  until  it  has  a  Chancellor 
as  its  head." 

Dr.  Stille  soon  discovered  that  he  could  accomplish  no 
more  as  Provost  than  as  professor.  In  either  office  he  stood 
merely  on  "  certain  personal  relations  with  some  members  of 
the  Board  which  enabled  him  to  enUst  their  active  sympathy 
with  his  plans."  But  he  did  not  discover  this  at  first ;  he 
threw  himself  with  zeal  into  the  plan  of  reform,  and  in  his 
inaugural  address,  at  the  Academy  of  Music,'^  made  an  elo- 
quent appeal  for  the  establishment  of  a  scientific  school  and 
for  its  liberal  endowment  as  a  distinct  department  of  the 
University. 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  Board  to  consider  the 
purchase  of  a  new  site  for  the  University  reported  favorably 


^  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  pp.  19-20. 
^  September  30,  1868. 
i6s 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1869 

at  the  October  meeting,  and  a  petition  was  presented  in 
Select  Council  in  December,  1868,  that  the  city  should  sell 
at  a  nominal  price  twenty  or  twenty-five  acres  of  the  Alms- 
house Farm  to  the  University.  After  many  months'  delay 
the  Joint  Committee  on  Conference  reported  an  ordinance 
for  the  sale  of  nearly  twenty  acres  of  the  property  at  eight 
thousand  dollars  an  acre,  but  more  than  this  the  committee 
would  not  advise.  In  Common  Council  the  ordinance 
passed  on  May  13,  1869,  without  opposition,  but  it  encoun- 
tered a  far  different  fate  in  the  higher  branch.  Not  until 
November  25,  and  after  a  series  of  dilatory  tactics  had  been 
resorted  to,  did  the  Select  Council  pass  the  measure,  amend- 
ing the  price  to  fifteen  thousand  dollars  an  acre,  and  cutting 
down  the  area  from  nineteen  acres  to  ten.  The  Common 
Council  restored  the  former  price  on  December  19,  and  in 
this  form  the  Select  Council  concurred  on  the  same  day.  The 
long  fight  was  over.  The  Mayor,  Daniel  M.  Fox,  signed  the 
bill,  and,  though  the  University  had  not  obtained  just  what  it 
had  sought,  it  had  secured  far  more  than  the  promoters  of  the 
ordinance  imagined — an  educational  opportunity.^  "I  never 
engaged  in  so  wearisome  and  thankless  a  task,"  wrote  Dr. 
Stille,  "  and  nothing  but  a  perfect  conviction  of  the  greatness 
of  the  interests  at  stake  induced  me  to  persevere  in  the  work. 
Both  Mr.  Welsh  and  Mr.  Browne  gave  me  most  valuable 
aid,  but  none  of  the  Trustees  and  not  a  single  one  of  the 
professors  showed  the  slightest  practical  interest  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  measure."^  Its  opponents,  having  no  sympathy 
with  the  University  or  its  aims,  argued  that  the  city  ought 


*  For  the  text  of  the  ordinance  see  Provost  Pepper's  Report,  Oc- 
tober, 1892— June,  1894,  pp.  49—51. 
"  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  p.  23. 

166 


JEt.  26]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

not  to  part  with  the  property  for  a  sum  so  much  below  its 
market  value,  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  make  the  sug- 
gestion that  the  advocates  of  the  measure  were  personally 
interested  in  some  financial  scheme  underlying  the  whole 
transaction.  Dr.  Stille  was  learning  that  the  path  of  the 
reformer  and  public  benefactor  is  not  strewn  with  thornless 
roses. 

About  the  time  when  Mayor  Fox  signed  the  deed,  Mr. 
Welsh  went  as  Minister  to  England,  and  was  absent  nearly 
a  year  and  a  half,  but  before  he  left,  the  Trustees  had  taken 
up  the  question  of  erecting  the  new  buildings.  Mr.  Rich- 
ards, the  teacher  of  drawing  in  the  University,  prepared 
plans,  which,  much  bereft  of  their  beauty,  were  ultimately 
adopted.  No  one  took  Mr.  Welsh's  place  in  the  work  of 
securing  an  endowment  fund,  and  during  his  absence  not  a 
penny  was  raised.  In  spite  of  this  the  Board  was  strongly 
in  favor  of  entering  into  contracts  for  the  erection  of  the  new 
buildings  at  once,  and  "  it  was  proposed  to  find  the  money 
for  this  purpose  by  mortgaging  the  real  estate  of  the  Uni- 
versity." ^  The  Provost  opposed  this  policy  as  suicidal,  but 
the  Trustees  held  to  the  view  that  the  best  way  to  increase 
the  fund  was  to  erect  the  buildings,  and  thus  to  satisfy  the 
public  that  they  were  in  earnest.  Just  at  this  time  the  man 
on  whom  the  Provost  relied  to  build  up  the  proposed  De- 
partment of  Sciences,  Dr.  Wetherill,  Professor  of  Chemistry 
in  Lehigh  University,  died,  and  there  seemed  no  one  to  take 
his  place.  "  But  this  severe  blow  to  all  our  plans,"  as  Dr. 
Stille  expressed  it,  "  seemed  less  severe  to  me  than  a  project 
to  which  the  Trustees  at  this  time  gave  their  sanction — to 
raise  an  endowment  fund  to  establish  and  maintain  a  Uni- 


^  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  p.  25. 
167 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1871 

versity  Hospital."      It  was  with  this  hospital  fund,  as  has 
been  seen,  that  the  public  labors  of  Dr.  Pepper  began. 

Provost  Stille  resented  the  action  of  the  Board  respect- 
ing the  proposed  hospital  fund  because  he  believed  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  raise  two  endowment  funds  of  half 
a  million  each — one  for  the  University  as  a  whole,  the  other 
for  a  single  department.  The  contributors,  he  believed,  must 
necessarily  be  the  same  people,  and  to  attempt  to  raise  a 
million  dollars  in  Philadelphia  for  the  University  seemed  to 
him  both  unwise  and  hopeless.  The  determination  of  the 
Board  to  contract  a  debt  for  the  erection  of  the  building 
without  making  provision  to  meet  the  implied  obligation, 
and  the  absorption  of  the  University  endowment  fund  by  the 
friends  of  the  proposed  University  Hospital,  made  the  future 
prospects,  in  his  opinion,  dismal  enough.  Partly  to  prevent 
disaster,  he  at  this  time  proposed  that  the  Provost  should 
be  made  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  thus  making 
the  office  like  that  held  by  the  Presidents  of  Harvard,  Yale, 
and  Princeton.  The  Trustees  were  disposed  to  favor  this 
change  till  it  was  discovered  that  the  Medical  Faculty  op- 
posed it,  on  the  ground  that  with  the  Provost  as  the  head 
that  Faculty  would  lose  its  ancient  independence.  More- 
over, it  was  understood  that  Dr.  George  B.  Wood,  who,  it 
was  expected,  would  leave  a  large  estate  to  the  University, 
would  be  displeased  if  the  change  was  made.  These  reasons 
and  others  led  the  Board  in  1871  to  reject  the  proposition. 
On  Mr.  Welsh's  return  he  found  that  the  corner-stone  of 
the  new  building  had  been  laid  in  June,  and  that  the  Board 
was  engaged  in  erecting  expensive  buildings  with  borrowed 
money.  He  at  once  resumed  his  efforts  to  raise  an  en- 
dowment, and  with  some  success ;  but  he  was  most  helpful 
to  the  University  in  projecting  and  completing  the  sale,  in 

168 


^T.  28]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

July,  1872,  of  the  University  property  at  Ninth  and  Chestnut 
Streets  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  as  a  site  for 
the  new  post-office.  Thus  the  Board  was  unexpectedly  pro- 
vided with  money  with  which  to  erect  the  new  buildings  in 
West  Philadelphia.  In  September  these  were  dedicated  and 
the  University  began  a  new  life  amidst  new  surroundings. 
The  institution  was  free  from  debt  and  the  outlook  was 
hopeful.  The  enrolment  of  students  in  the  new  quarters 
increased  nearly  a  hundred  per  cent,  in  the  year  i872-'3,  but 
the  running  expenses  increased  in  the  new  plant  and  ex- 
ceeded the  current  income.  If  the  half  million  endowment 
fund  could  be  secured  the  institution  could  meet  its  annual 
expenses.  The  funds  at  hand  were  soon  exhausted  and  the 
Trustees  borrowed  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  to 
complete  the  erection  of  the  Medical  Hall. 

On  June  1,  1875,  the  Towne  Scientific  School  was  estab- 
lished, and  during  the  year  instruction  in  some  of  the  labo- 
ratories and  in  social  science,  history,  and  English  was  de- 
clared open  to  both  sexes.  Two  years  later  the  Charitable 
Schools,  established  in  1753,  and  carried  on  at  Fourth  Street, 
near  Arch,  were  discontinued  by  the  Trustees,  who  provided, 
as  an  equivalent,  gratuitous  instruction  in  the  University  out 
of  its  trust  funds.^ 

Meanwhile  the  debt  continued  to  increase.  From  1868 
to  1883  the  University  received  $580,500  in  money  gifts, 
wholly  in  the  College  Department ;  but  in  spite  of  this  help 
the  debt,  in  1880,  was  about  $450,000,  and  the  future  gave 
promise  of  its  increase.  For  several  years  the  relations 
between  Provost  Stille  and  the  Board  of  Trustees  had  been 


^  For  a  history  of  these  schools  see  "  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,"  passim. 

169 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1880 

strained,  and  the  difFerences  between  them  culminated  over 
a  matter  of  college  discipline.  On  January  30,  1880,  he 
resigned,^  having  filled  the  office  of  Provost  twelve  years. 
It  has  been  said  of  him  that  no  man  since  William  Smith 
brought  into  the  office  of  Provost  such  energy,  such  zeal  for 
the  promotion  of  the  interest  of  the  University  and  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  community  in  which  it  was  situated ;  and 
that  no  man  had  a  clearer  idea  of  what  a  university  should 
be,  or  ever  labored  more  faithfully  or  earnestly  to  achieve  his 
ideals.'  The  retirement  of  Dr.  Stille  made  necessary  the 
selection  of  his  successor,  and  in  looking  about  for  him  the 
attention  of  the  Board  was  drawn,  by  the  force  of  events  as 
well  as  by  the  evidence  of  extraordinary  executive  capacity, 
to  Dr.  Pepper. 

Provost  Stille,  in  his  letter  of  resignation,  sent  to  the 
Trustees  January  30,  1880,  complained  that  the  real  diffi- 
culty at  the  University  was  its  lack  of  a  "  Head  or  Presi- 
dent, of  any  kind,  with  official  duties  and  legal  rights,  or 
powers.  Our  government  is  a  government  of  committees, 
and  no  wonder  it  is  a  failure,  for  no  one  ever  heard  of  any 
corporation  whose  affairs  were  successfully  conducted  under 
such  an  organization."  He  described  himself  as  a  Provost 
"  without  a  vote  and  without  any  official  authority  or  influ- 
ence whatever, — that  strange  nondescript  in  college  organi- 
zation, an  '  organ  of  communication'  between  six  Faculties 
and  the  Board."  He  had  learned,  after  twelve  years'  experi- 
ence as  Provost,  "  that  personal  kindness  should  not  be  the 
motive  power  in  conducting  the  affairs  of  the  University." 
No  improvement,  he  said,  was  to  be  looked  for  until  the 


'  Letter  of  resignation  in  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  pp.  49—54. 
^  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  p.  23. 

170 


^T.  36]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

charter  was  so  revised  that  the  Provost  should  become  ex 
officio  the  Head  or  President  of  the  corporation,  and  the  line 
of  division  between  the  powers  of  the  Board  and  the  Facul- 
ties be  more  clearly  marked  than  it  had  been.^  "  The  busi- 
ness of  the  University,"  continued  he,  "  its  sole  business,  is  to 
teach,  and  for  that  purpose  six  different  departments,  contain- 
ing more  than  a  thousand  students,  each  under  the  charge  of 
a  distinct  Faculty,  have  been  organized.  Its  machinery  should 
be  confided  to  trained  and  skilful  hands  alone.  The  busi- 
ness— the  sole  business  of  the  Board  of  Trustees — the  reason 
for  which  it  was  created — is  to  adopt  such  measures  as  shall 
promote  this  mode  of  teaching  and  render  it  in  the  highest 
degree  efficient."* 

The  system  prevailing  at  the  University  had  grown  up 
with  it  and  had  survived  its  usefulness.  Every  member  of 
the  Board  was  familiar  with  the  great  defects  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  school.  Dr.  Stille  had  very  positive  notions 
of  the  powers  of  the  ideal  Provost,  and  in  his  letter  of  resig- 
nation made  them  clear  to  the  Trustees.  Read  in  the  light 
of  the  career  of  his  successor,  his  description  of  the  ideal 
Provost  runs  like  a  prophecy.  "  We  need,"  said  he,  "  not 
merely  constant  and  intelligent  supervision  of  the  work  of 
the  different  Faculties,  but  also  that  active  encouragement 
and  sympathy  with  improvements  whenever  suggested  which 
shall  aid  and  support  every  project  which  may  promise  to 
enlarge  the  sphere  or  add  to  the  reputation  of  the  University. 
We  need  for  these  purposes  the  wisest  and  best- trained  head 
that  can  be  found,  for  there  is  no  more  difficult  work  than 
that  of  University  organization  and  management ;  some  one 
whose  daily  familiarity  with  the  work  of  all  the  Faculties 


'Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  p.  50.  'Id. 

171 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1880 

shall  give  him  a  special  aptitude  for  ascertaining  what  is 
needed,  and  who  shall  afterward  utilize  that  knowledge  by 
urging  with  authority  on  the  Board  the  adoption  of  meas- 
ures, with  such  an  official  guarantee  of  their  propriety  as  the 
Board  may  depend  upon.  Further  than  this,  we  need  some 
man  whose  special  business  it  shall  be  to  make  himself  famil- 
iar with  all  that  is  going  on  in  the  world  of  education,  and 
with  judgment  clear  enough  to  decide  how  far  any  changes 
successfully  tried  elsewhere  may  safely  be  introduced  here. 
We  need  a  man  with  a  mind  always  open  to  new  views, 
and  with  a  well-defined  policy  on  the  general  subject  of 
University  education,  who  shall  take  the  initiative  in  sug- 
gesting new  plans,  or  improvements  in  old  ones,  to  the 
Board,  and  who  may  act  in  that  body  as  one  who  speaks 
with  authority.  We  shall  never  succeed  as  other  institu- 
tions have  done  until  we  find  a  man  whom  we  shall  recog- 
nize as  an  organizer,  a  leader  whom  we  shall  trust,  because 
we  know  he  has  been  especially  trained,  and  that  he  will 
give  all  his  energy  and  capacity  to  the  work  in  which  he  is 
engaged."  ^ 

A  few  days  before  sending  his  letter  of  resignation  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  Trustees  a  statement  of  a  plan  of  reorganiza- 
tion which,  he  said,  "  is  essential,  if  any  future  Provost  is 
expected  to  perform  the  duties  of  the  office  with  credit  to 
himself  and  with  advantage  to  the  University  in  its  present 
critical  condition."  The  substance  of  his  plan  was  so  to 
revise  the  charter  that  the  Provost  should  become  ex  officio 
a  Trustee,  President  of  the  Board,  and  chairman  of  all  the 
Faculties,  thus  occupying  the  position  at  Pennsylvania 
which  the  Presidents  of  Harvard  and  Yale  held   in  their 


'  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  p.  51. 
172 


JEt.  37]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

own  colleges.  This  suggestion  he  had  made  as  early  as  Feb- 
ruary, 1871.  The  Trustees  should  provide  for  the  extin- 
guishment of  the  debt,  and  until  this  should  be  paid  and 
the  Collegiate  Department  should  become  self-sustaining,  no 
new  undertaking  involving  an  outlay  of  money  should  be 
attempted.^ 

These  wise  suggestions,  upon  the  execution  of  which  the 
future  of  the  University  may  be  said  to  have  depended, 
emanated  from  a  man  who  did  not  sufficiently  possess  the 
confidence  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  be  entrusted  with 
the  duty  of  carrying  them  out.  Had  he  possessed  as  much 
tact  as  learning,  doubtless  he  would  have  been  the  first  man 
thought  of  by  the  Board  to  inaugurate  and  carry  out  these 
reforms.  When  he  was  elected  Provost  in  1868,  the  con- 
dition of  the  University,  as  he  relates  in  his  Reminiscences, 
was  somewhat  discouraging.  The  reforms  which  he  imme- 
diately inaugurated — the  extension  of  the  curriculum,  the 
removal  of  the  University  to  West  Philadelphia,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Towne  Scientific  School  in  1872" — 
have  already  been  related.  In  1877  the  Department  of 
Music  was  organized  and  in  the  following  year  the  Dental 
School.  The  University  Hospital,  with  whose  origin  and 
organization  Dr.  Stille  had  little  sympathy,  had  been  added 
during  his  term. 

The  corporation  at  the  time  of  his  resignation  was  housed 
in  four  buildings  of  serpentine  stone  on  Woodland  Avenue 
and  Spruce  Street :  the  College  Hall,  the  Medical  Hall,  the 
Dental  Building,  and  the  Hospital.  The  campus  was  as  yet 
unimproved  and  presented  to  the  eye  a  dreary  waste,  sug- 


^  Reminiscences  of  a  Provost,  pp.  55-58. 

'  The  Auxiliary  Faculty  of  Medicine  was  organized  in  1875. 

173 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1881 

gesting  greater  poverty  than  the  Treasurer's  books  really 
showed.  During  the  last  year  of  Provost  Stille's  term,  there 
were  nine  hundred  and  seventy-two  students  in  attendance 
at  the  University,  taught  by  ninety-seven  professors  and  in- 
structors. Of  the  Faculty,  forty-seven  were  in  the  Medical 
School,  twenty-three  in  the  Dental,  twenty-two  in  the  Col- 
lege, and  five  in  the  Law  School. 

Of  the  students,  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  were  enrolled 
in  the  Medical  School,  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  in  the 
College,  one  hundred  and  forty  in  the  Law  School,  and  one 
hundred  and  nine  in  the  Dental  School.  During  Provost 
Stille's  administration  the  number  of  professors  and  instruc- 
tors had  increased  from  twenty-six  to  ninety-seven,  and  the 
number  of  students  from  six  hundred  to  nine  hundred  and 
seventy-two.  The  Medical  School  had  maintained  an  annual 
attendance  of  four  hundred  and  thirty,  but  the  Law  School 
had  increased  from  seventy  to  one  hundred  and  forty  stu- 
dents. The  Dental  School,  organized  in  his  time,  had  im- 
mediately sprung  into  public  favor,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
resignation  had  about  one  hundred  students.  Passing  over 
the  curriculum  with  the  remark  that  it  then  compared  favor- 
ably with  that  of  other  collegiate  institutions  in  America, 
it  must  be  said  that  the  University  at  the  time  of  Provost 
Stille's  resignation,  in  spite  of  its  relatively  heavy  debt  and 
its  forlorn  appearance,  was  in  a  more  prosperous  condition 
than  at  any  earlier  time  in  its  history. 

Dr.  Pepper's  nomination  was  unexpected.  He  seems  to 
have  been  thought  of,  as  a  possible  Provost,  only  a  few  days 
before  he  was  nominated.  At  this  distance  in  time  the  selec- 
tion seems  the  logical  one  for  the  Trustees  to  make.  One 
has  only  to  read  the  record  of  his  services  to  the  University 
down  to  the  hour  of  his  nomination  to  discover  the  deep 

174 


Mr.  37]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

interest  which  he  took  in  its  welfare.  The  letter  written  by 
Mr.  John  Welsh  to  Dr.  Pepper  in  1878^  exemplifies  the 
confidence  which  eminent  men  in  Philadelphia  had  in  his 
ability  to  accomplish  large  undertakings ;  and  looking  back 
over  these  early  records  they  seem  to  warrant  the  assertion 
that  he  was  the  natural  successor  to  Provost  Stille. 

The  confidence  reposed  in  Dr.  Pepper  by  the  Trustees  was 
shared  by  the  public,  and  he  was  the  recipient  of  many  con- 
gratulatory letters  intimating  that  his  acceptance  of  the  ap- 
pointment signified  that  the  University  had  entered  upon  a 
new  era. 

His  election,  which  occurred  January  12,  1881,  was  unani- 
mous.^ To  the  committee  of  the  Board  appointed  to  notify 
him  he  sent  the  following  letter  of  acceptance : 

"  I  had  the  honor  of  receiving  to-day  a  sub-committee,  composed 
of  Messrs.  Rogers,  Merrick,  and  Mitchell,  who  informed  me  of  mv 
unanimous  election  as  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  They  informed  me  at  the  same  time  that  the  Board  of  Trustees 
had  made  certain  modifications  in  the  duties  and  powers  of  the 
Provost,  and  also  had  enlarged  the  discipline  and  supervisory  func- 
tions of  the  respective  Faculties. 

"  While  rejoicing  at  what  appears  a  marked  improvement  in  the 
organization  of  the  University,  I  am  highly  gratified  at  finding  that 
these  changes  render  it  possible  for  me,  while  continuing  to  hold 
my  chair  in  the  Medical  Department  and  to  pursue  the  practice  of 
my  profession,  to  accept  the  important  post  to  which  I  have  been 
elected. 


'  See  page  76,  supra. 

^  In  his  address  at  the  memorial  meeting  in  the  Chapel  (see  ac- 
count later)  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell  referred  to  the  fact  that  the  Provost- 
ship  was  offered  to  Rev.  Phillips  Brooks  in  1880,  who  declined  it. 
He  also  intimated  that  it  was  offered  to  himself. 

175 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1881 

"  I  shall  esteem  it  the  highest  honor  and  privilege  to  be  able  to 
serve  the  University  in  this  capacity,  and  I  earnestly  trust,  with 
the  cordial  co-operation  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  of  the  various 
Faculties,  the  general  welfare  and  the  efficiency  of  the  administration 
may  continue  unabated. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  remain,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  William  Pepper." 


The  nature  of  the  changes  in  University  organization  made 
at  this  time  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  statement. 
By  its  charter  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  is  ex  officio 
President  of  its  Board  of  Trustees,  but  the  absorbing  nature 
of  his  other  official  duties  had  for  many  years  so  interfered 
with  his  functions  as  a  member  of  this  Board  that  he  had 
never  taken  a  seat  at  any  of  its  meetings.  The  great  change 
in  the  statutes  consisted  in  making  the  Provost  President  pro 
tempore  of  the  Board,  with  the  duty  of  presiding  at  all  of  its 
meetings  and  of  appointing  all  committees,  excepting  that  on 
Ways  and  Means,  which  is  elected.  Thus,  one  part,  and  a 
very  important  one,  in  Dr.  Stille's  proposed  reforms  was  car- 
ried out,  and  the  Provost  became  the  chief  executive  of  the 
institution.  He  was  brought  into  intimate  relations  with 
the  Trustees  in  the  transaction  of  all  business  and  became  ex 
officio  a  member  of  all  the  Faculties  and  chairman  of  all 
their  committees.  In  brief,  he  was  made  "  the  representative 
of  the  entire  University  in  its  relations  with  the  community, 
and  must  explain  and  advocate  the  various  educational  move- 
ments initiated.  Standing  between  the  Trustees  and  the  Fac- 
ulties, he  must  in  a  peculiar  sense,  and  despite  the  vast  im- 
portance of  the  committees  of  the  Board  and  of  the  newly 
developed  Deanships,  possess  the  confidence  of  the  Board,  the 
Faculties,  and  the  Alumni  as  a  fair  and  impartial  administra- 

176 


JEr.  37]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

tor,  whose  sole  object  is  the  welfare  of  the  institution  over 
which  he  is  called  to  preside."  ^ 

From  the  time  of  Dr.  Pepper's  inauguration  as  Provost,  the 
educational  interests  of  Philadelphia — and,  it  may  be  said,  of 
the  adjoining  States  also — entered  upon  a  new,  a  more  pros- 
perous era.  The  great  and  beneficial  changes  wrought  during 
that  era  comprise,  in  large  measure,  the  academic  services  of 
Dr.  Pepper  himself  during  the  remaining  years  of  his  life. 
To  him  the  University  was  a  beloved  child  whose  promise 
of  power  and  goodness  awakened  lofty  hopes  and  stirred  to 
their  depths  the  fountains  of  parental  affection. 

The  new  Provost  was  inaugurated  on  February  22,  1881. 
The  ceremonies  were  attended  by  the  officers  of  the  Univer- 
sity, by  the  presidents  of  six  universities  and  colleges,'  and  by 
many  eminent  citizens  of  the  State  and  city.  The  Governor 
of  Pennsylvania,  Honorable  Henry  M.  Hoyt,  ex  officio  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  presented  the  keys  of  the  Uni- 
versity to  Dr.  Pepper,  who  then  delivered  an  inaugural  address. 

He  urged  that  the  school  be  made  a  university  whose 
courses  should  offer  instruction  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences, 
and  that  in  this  sense  it  should  become  "  a  national  institu- 
tion." At  this  time  the  question  of  co-education  was  under 
discussion  among  American  teachers.  Concerning  the  ques- 
tion at  the  University  Provost  Pepper  said  :  "  Beyond  dispute 
the  co-education  of  the  sexes  is  inadmissible.  But  the  Univer- 
sity should  co-operate  with  efforts  to  secure  facilities  for  the 


^  The  Scope  of  the  University,  by  Provost  Pepper,  in  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Washington  :  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office,  1893,  P-  ^^^* 

*  Harvard,  Union,  Lehigh,  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology, 
Swarthmore,  Haverford. 

12  177 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1881 

education  of  women,"  and  again  he  observed  that  the  higher 
education  of  women  at  the  University  ought  not  to  be  neg- 
lected. He  urged  two  things  at  this  time, — the  admission  of 
the  Alumni  to  representation  in  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and 
the  erection  of  a  new  library  building.  He  announced  the 
gift  by  Mr.  Joseph  Wharton,  of  Philadelphia,  of  an  endow- 
ment for  a  new  department  in  the  University,  to  be  known  as 
the  Wharton  School.  The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was 
conferred  on  James  Abram  Garfield,  President-elect  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  ceremonies  closed  with  a  benediction 
by  the  Right  Reverend  William  Bacon  Stevens,  Bishop  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  inauguration  was  not  regarded  as  an  important  event 
in  the  educational  life  of  the  country.  It  was  a  local  affair, 
and  stands  in  marked  contrast  to  the  ceremonies  connected 
with  Dr.  Pepper's  resignation  from  the  Provostship  thirteen 
years  later,  which  were  viewed  by  the  public  as  a  matter  of 
extraordinary  interest. 


178 


Mr.  37]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

II 

THE    UNIVERSITY 

1881-1884 

DR.  PEPPER'S  inauguration,  in  February,  1881,  oc- 
curred too  near  the  close  of  the  academic  session  to 
allow  him  to  do  more  than  bring  the  year's  work 
to  a  respectable  ending,  but  he  immediately  instituted  reforms 
and  began  several  large  movements,  of  which  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  speak  in  strict  order  of  time.  They  are  best  viewed 
in  their  aggregate  results.  When  the  University  acquired  its 
original  site  of  ten  acres  in  West  Philadelphia,  its  friends  con- 
gratulated themselves  that  it  had  acquired  ample  room  for 
future  growth ;  but  before  Dr.  Stille's  resignation  it  was  real- 
ized that,  owing  to  the  rapid  increase  "  in  the  number  of  stu- 
dents in  the  various  departments,  and  the  organization  of  new 
departments,  and  the  consequent  necesssity  for  the  erection 
of  new  buildings,  the  original  purchase  had  become  entirely 
inadequate."  Dr.  Pepper  immediately  initiated  a  movement 
for  an  enlargement  of  the  property,  and  application  was  made 
to  the  city  of  Philadelphia  for  a  sufficient  amount  of  land 
belonging  to  the  Blockley  Farm,  which  the  city  had  power 
to  dispose  of  by  a  special  ordinance  upon  suitable  conditions, 
to  enable  the  University  to  carry  out  its  improvements  and  to 
accommodate  its  future  growth.  In  January,  1882,  this  ap- 
phcation  was  sent  to  the  Councils  by  the  Mayor,  Samuel  J. 
King,  with  a  message  urging  its  importance.  On  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  the  month  Mayor  King  had  the  pleasure  of  ap- 
proving an  ordinance  by  which  nearly  seventeen  acres  of  land, 

179 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1883 

a  part  of  Blockley  Farm,  were  conveyed  to  the  Trustees  of 
the  University^  subject  to  a  ground-rent  to  the  city  of  five 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  to  the  fiirther  condition  that  they 
should  establish  and  forever  maintain  at  least  fifty  free  scholar- 
ships of  an  annual  value  of  no  less  than  seventy-five  hundred 
dollars,  "  to  be  awarded,  under  such  conditions  as  may  fi-om 
time  to  time  be  deemed  suitable,  to  worthy  and  deserving 
students  of  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia  ;"  further,  that 
the  land  should  never  be  alienated  without  the  consent  of  the 
city,  and  that  no  buildings  other  than  for  educational  purposes 
should  ever  be  erected  upon  it.^  Four  days  later  the  con- 
ditions attached  to  the  ordinance  were  unanimously  accepted 
by  the  Board,  and  suitable  by-laws  were  adopted  establishing 
the  scholarships.  Speaking  of  this,  Provost  Pepper  observed : 
"  By  this  wise  legislation  the  city  of  Philadelphia  has  secured 
in  perpetuity  educational  advantages  of  the  highest  value  for 
classes  of  the  community  which  furnish  students  for  the 
public  schools,  while  it  has  placed  the  University  in  the 
position  to  carry  out  wide-reaching  plans  which  will  inure  to 
the  lasting  benefit  of  the  city."  By  the  new  acquisition  of 
land  the  University  now  possessed  twenty-seven  acres,  "  an 
extent  of  territory,"  continued  Dr.  Pepper,  "  which  will  prob- 
ably suffice  for  all  purposes  for  a  considerable  number  of 
years." 

Of  almost  equal  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  University 
was  the  action  of  City  Councils,  July  6,  1 883,  in  response  to 
a  movement  begun  by  Dr.  Pepper,  by  which  it  was  ordered 
that  all  that  portion  of  the  Almshouse  grounds  between  the 
University  and  the  Schuylkill  River  should  be  reserved  for 

*  The  ordinance  is  given  in  the  Provost's  Report,  June,  1894, 

PP-  53-55- 

180 


JEt.  39]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

improvement  as  a  public  park/  Dr.  Pepper's  far-reaching 
designs  were  not  commonly  understood  at  the  time  of  the 
passage  of  this  ordinance ;  what  those  designs  were  will  later 
appear.  At  the  time  of  the  ordinance  he  explained  "  that  this 
action  was  imperatively  demanded  in  the  interest  of  the  health 
of  the  community,  that  an  extensive  stretch  of  river  front 
should  be  secured  against  pollution."  But  much  more  was 
involved  than  many  supposed,  although  he  was  never  able 
to  carry  through  the  great  movement  which  he  had  in 
mind.'*  What  that  movement  was  is  clear  enough  from  the 
following :   "  Incidentally,"    said   he,  "  it  will   prove   advan- 

*  For  the  ordinance,  see  Provost's  Report,  1894,    p.  56. 

^  This  was  the  removal  of  the  Almshouse  to  a  suitable  site  out- 
side of  the  city,  the  separation  of  the  sane  and  the  insane  paupers, 
and  the  erection  of  a  model  Municipal  Hospital  on  the  old  site 
of  Blockley.  This  gigantic  undertaking  was  the  only  very  large 
enterprise  undertaken  by  Dr.  Pepper  (which  occupied  him  more 
or  less  for  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  life)  in  the  execution  of 
which  he  was  baffled.  The  subject  will  occur  repeatedly  through 
this  volume,  as  its  interests  were  interwoven  with  the  other  public 
interests.  When  he  became  Provost  he  entered  vigorously  upon 
this  great  reform,  the  first  step  in  which  was  to  secure  the  Blockley 
Farm  through  an  act  of  City  Councils  against  dismemberment  for 
private  uses. 

He  began  the  movement  for  hospital  reform  in  Philadelphia  in 
1866,  when,  as  chairman  of  the  Medical  Board  of  the  Philadelphia 
Hospital,  he  addressed  a  long  communication  to  the  Hospital  Com- 
mittee [Pepper  MSS.] ,  urging  important  and  necessary  changes  in 
the  management.  From  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  visiting 
physician  to  Blockley  in  the  following  year  (May  4,  1867),  he 
entered  more  zealously  upon  the  almost  hopeless  task  of  securing 
reforms  in  that  institution,  and  he  was  engaged  upon  these  at  the 

time  of  his  death. 

181 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1883 

tageous  to  the  University,  and  when  the  further  proposed 
changes  are  effected,  including  the  removal  of  the  Almshouse 
to  a  distant  site,"  improvements  in  the  institution  could  be 
carried  out  which  would  make  it  creditable  to  a  city  of  the 
size  and  wealth  of  Philadelphia. 

In  June,  1  882,  the  free  scholarships  were  filled  for  the  first 
time  by  award  upon  competitive  examination  to  graduates 
of  the  Philadelphia  High  School.  By  the  establishing  of 
these  scholarships  the  city  schools  and  the  University  were 
brought  for  the  first  time  into  academic  relation,  and  that 
sympathy  and  mutual  efficiency  begun  which  have  strength- 
ened both  bodies  ever  since.  The  innovation  was  of  critical 
importance,  for  it  marked  the  time  when  the  University 
ceased  to  be  an  isolated  institution  in  the  midst  of  a  popu- 
lous community.  Another  reform  which  Dr.  Pepper  inau- 
gurated was  an  amendment  of  the  requirements  for  admission 
to  the  University,  which  went  into  effect  at  the  examination 
in  June,  1884.  It  was  the  first  step  towards  uniformity  in 
admission  among  the  leading  colleges  of  the  country  and 
speedily  bore  fruit  in  the  preparatory  schools.  He  increased 
the  requirements  for  admission  to  the  Department  of  Arts 
and  also  advanced  the  standard  in  the  Towne  Scientific 
School.  Persons  familiar  with  the  educational  history  of 
the  country  will  remember  that  about  this  time  ^  the  ques- 
tion of  elective  courses  was  still  under  vigorous  discussion  in 
all  quarters.  In  the  solution  of  this  grave  problem  Dr.  Pep- 
per pursued  from  the  outset  a  conservative  course.  The 
next  decade,  be  thought,  would  give  ample  opportunity  for 
observing  the  results  of  the  elective  system,  but  he  did  not 
favor  its  introduction  into  the  University.     It  appeared  to 


*  During  the  years  1 880-1 884. 
182 


JEt.  39]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

him  that  the  great  results  sought — namely,  the  systematic 
training  and  development  of  the  intellectual  power  of  the 
student,  and  the  acquisition  ot  useful  knowledge — would 
best  be  secured  "  by  maintaining  a  suitable  number  of  par- 
allel courses  of  study,  each  of  which  contained  in  varying 
proportions  the  necessary  subjects, — Mathematics,  History, 
Languages  (Ancient  and  Modern),  English  Literature,  Chem- 
istry, and  Physics ;  and  allowing  each  student  to  select  no 
such  isolated  subjects  of  study  as  he  might  prefer, — a  pref- 
erence often  dictated  by  indolence, — but  rather  one  ot  the 
groups  of  subjects,  or  parallel  courses,  which  will  most  di- 
rectly bear  upon  the  future  occupation  for  which  he  is  des- 
tined." In  harmony  with  this  decision,  the  University  for  the 
first  time,  in  1882-3,  offered  its  courses  in  four  groups :  first, 
the  regular  Classical  course ;  second,  a  modification  of  the 
Classical  course  with  the  substitution  of  Biological  studies 
during  the  last  two  years;  third,  the  Scientific  course  in 
the  Towne  School ;  and  fourth,  the  course  in  the  Wharton 
School  in  Finance  and  Economy.  In  practice  this  amounted 
to  nine  elective  courses,  "  each  of  which,"  said  he,  "  contains 
a  suitable  combination  of  the  necessary  elements  of  a  profit- 
able education."  It  was  at  this  time,  also,  that  a  controversy 
was  resumed  which  was  raging  in  the  University  in  Frank- 
lin's time,  over  the  relative  advantages  of  the  ancient  and 
modem  languages  as  instruments  of  instruction.  Dr.  Pep- 
per's solution  of  the  question  was  the  offer  of  elective  courses, 
carefully  grouped  in  such  manner  that  the  student  would 
obtain  results  of  equal  educational  value  whether  he  pursued 
the  Classical  group,  or  the  Scientific  group  with  a  comple- 
ment of  Modern  Languages. 

By  extending  the  course  in  the  Towne  Scientific  School 
to  five  years,  graduates  were  thenceforth  enabled  to  receive, 

183 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1883 

in  addition  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science,  the  pro- 
fessional degree  of  Civil  Engineer,  Mechanical  Engineer,  or 
Mining  Engineer,  according  to  the  special  elective  course 
which  they  had  pursued. 

Dr.  Stille  had  lamented,  in  his  time,  the  hopeless  isolation 
of  the  several  University  Faculties.  In  March,  1883,  Dr. 
Pepper's  plan  of  academic  reorganization  was  adopted  by 
the  Board  provisionally,  by  which  all  the  instructors  in  the 
University  were  constituted  one  Faculty,  subdivided  into  six 
groups :  the  College  Faculty,  the  Faculties  of  Medicine,  of 
Law,  of  Dentistry,  of  Science  Auxiliary  to  Medicine,  and 
of  Philosophy.  Each  Faculty  was  presided  over  by  a  Dean 
and  was  served  by  a  Secretary. 

Prior  to  the  removal  of  the  University  to  West  Philadel- 
phia, the  students,  with  the  exception  of  those  in  the  Medical 
School,  were  drawn  almost  exclusively  from  Philadelphia. 
In  1883,  Dr.  Pepper  noted  that  with  each  year  since  his 
accession  to  the  Provostship  the  area  from  which  the  stu- 
dents came  had  varied  and  increased,  and  that  the  time  could 
not  be  distant  when  the  College  Department  would  acquire 
the  national  reputation  so  long  enjoyed  by  the  Medical 
School.  Unfortunately  for  the  University,  even  at  the  time 
of  the  new  Provost's  first  report,  many  citizens  of  Philadel- 
phia preferred  to  send  their  sons  to  other  Universities,  and 
this  current,  long  setting  away  from  Philadelphia,  has  never 
been  stopped ;  though  long  before  Dr.  Pepper's  retirement 
from  the  Provostship  it  had  fallen  away  until  it  had  become 
a  relatively  slender  stream.  He  was  looking  forward,  in 
1883,  to  the  time  in  the  near  future  when  the  City  of  Phila- 
delphia would  be  represented  by  no  less  than  one  thousand 
students  in  the  College  Department  alone ;  but  this  expecta- 
tion was  not  realized  in  his  day. 

184 


JEt.  39]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

A  feature  of  special  interest  in  connection  with  the  in- 
struction in  the  college  at  this  time  was  a  course  of  lectures 
on  Surgical  Emergencies,  given  by  Dr.  J.  William  White, 
which  had  been  originally  intended  only  for  the  engineering 
sections  of  the  senior  classes  in  the  Towne  School,  but, 
proving  highly  attractive,  had  been  opened  to  the  entire 
senior  class.  This  innovation  was  the  beginning  of  that 
long  list  of  special  lectures  fostered  each  year  by  the  Uni- 
versity since  this  time.  The  Wharton  School,  the  found- 
ing of  which  Dr.  Pepper  had  been  able  to  announce  at  his 
inaugural,  after  running  an  experimental  course  for  nearly 
two  years,  was  reorganized  and  its  Faculty  strengthened  by 
the  election  of  new  men  destined  to  add  lustre  to  the  Uni- 
versity. The  Wharton  School  was  founded  "  To  provide 
for  young  men  special  means  of  training  and  of  accurate  in- 
struction in  the  knowledge  and  in  the  arts  of  modern  finance 
and  economy,  both  public  and  private,  in  order  that,  being 
well  informed  and  free  from  delusions  upon  these  important 
subjects,  they  may  either  serve  the  community  skilftiUy  as 
well  as  faithfully  in  offices  of  trust,  or,  remaining  in  private 
life,  may  prudently  manage  their  own  affairs  and  aid  in 
maintaining  sound  financial  morality — in  short,  to  establish 
means  for  imparting  a  liberal  education  in  all  matters  con- 
cerning finance  and  economy."^ 

It  was  about  this  time  that  interest  in  the  subjects  of 
American  history,  political  economy,  finance,  and  social 
science  was  awakened  in  the  leading  schools  of  the  country, 
which  soon,  and  for  the  first  time,  established  co-ordinate 
courses  of  instruction  in  these  studies.  The  remarkable 
strengthening  which  these  departments  have  since  received  in 


'  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  p.  320. 

I8S 


WILLIAxM    PEPPER  [1883 

the  form  of  endowments  and  in  the  attendance  of  students 
confirms  the  wisdom  of  their  originators  and  founders. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  his  celebrated  medical  address 
of  1877  Dr.  Pepper  had  urged  several  far-reaching  reforms  in 
medical  instruction.  He  was  able  in  his  first  report  as  Pro- 
vost to  announce  an  extension  of  the  course  in  the  Medical 
School  from  October  1  to  April  1 5.  "  This  is  a  further  step 
in  the  right  direction,"  said  he,  "  but  it  will  not  suffice  ;  it  will 
doubtless  be  found  practicable  ere  long  to  make  the  length  of 
the  medical  session  the  same  as  that  of  the  College  Depart- 
ment." The  significance  of  this  statement  may  be  missed 
unless  it  is  remembered  that  at  the  time  it  was  made  there 
were  several  medical  schools  in  the  United  States  in  which  the 
annual  course  did  not  reach  ten  weeks.  "  The  earnest  and 
successful  student  of  medicine,"  he  continued,  "  must  now 
devote  his  whole  time  for  three  years  to  acquiring  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  profession,  and  there  is  no  longer  any  valid  reason 
for  interrupting  the  regular  session  of  our  medical  colleges  in 
March  or  April.  The  spring  course  of  lectures,  provided  for 
those  who  choose  to  attend  them  voluntarily,  constitutes  but 
a  specious  and  inadequate  substitute  for  the  valuable  months 
of  regular  study  they  pretend  to  replace." 

The  number  of  graduates  of  other  schools  who  were  attend- 
ing the  Medical  School  at  this  time  had  greatly  increased,  and 
to  provide  suitable  instruction  for  them  Dr.  Pepper  announced 
that  a  voluntary  fourth  year  had  been  established,  which,  it 
was  expected,  would  not  only  afford  physicians  the  practical 
facilities  they  desired,  but  would  induce  many  graduates,  who 
were  not  successful  in  securing  hospital  appointments,  and 
who  were  able  to  continue  their  professional  training,  "  to 
remain  and  perfect  themselves  in  various  practical  branches 
and  to  make  original  scientific  investigations."     This  proved 

186 


Mt.  40]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

to  be  the  entering  wedge  to  the  extension  of  the  medical 
course  to  four  years.  In  addition  to  this  voluntary  fourth 
year,  the  Medical  School  now  provided  short  courses  of  prac- 
tical study  for  graduates.  Until  about  this  time  post-graduate 
medical  instruction  could  be  secured  only  in  Europe.  Dr. 
Pepper  was  anxious  to  provide  facilities  for  such  instruction 
at  the  University, 

He  announced  the  completion  ot  the  pavilion  for  chronic 
diseases  in  connection  with  the  University  Hospital,  erected 
through  the  liberality  of  Henry  C.  Gibson,  Esq.,  at  a  cost  of 
sixty-five  thousand  dollars.  This  munificent  foundation  was 
due  primarily  and  almost  wholly  to  the  interest  which  Dr. 
Pepper  himself  had  been  able  to  awaken  in  Mr.  Gibson.  The 
plans  were  furnished  by  Dr.  John  S.  Billings,  U.  S.  A.,  after- 
wards Professor  of  Hygiene  and  Director  of  the  University 
Hospital.^  The  demands  upon  the  University  Hospital  had 
far  exceeded  its  capacity,  and  its  expenses  were  now  annually 
larger  than  its  income.  By  admirable  management  its  Board 
had  by  personal  eflfort  kept  the  deficit  to  a  minimum,  but  the 
burden  could  not  much  longer  be  borne,  and  Dr.  Pepper 
appealed  to  the  Trustees  of  the  University  for  aid  in  securing 
an  adequate  endowment.  The  Auxiliary  Department  ot 
Medicine,  endowed  by  the  distinguished  Dr.  George  B. 
Wood,  on  account  of  the  extension  of  the  session  of  the 
Medical  Department,  was  reorganized,  and  the  lectures  on 
some  scientific  subjects,  particularly  botany,  mineralogy,  and 
geology,  given  in  the  Towne  Scientific  School,  were  declared 
open  to  its  students.  The  reorganization  consisted,  in  sub- 
stance, in  co-ordinating  the  lectures  in  the  College  and  in  the 
Auxiliary  Department  of  Medicine. 


'  See  p.  132,  ante. 
187 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1883 

The  Faculty  of  the  Dental  School  had  been  strengthened 
during  the  year  by  the  election  of  Dr.  James  Truman  as 
Professor  of  Dental  Pathology  and  Therapeutical  Materia 
Medica,  and  its  session  had  been  prolonged  in  the  same  de- 
gree as  that  of  the  Medical  Department.  The  Provost  made 
a  vigorous  plea  for  the  dental  profession,  urging  that  entrance 
to  it  should  be  guarded  by  the  same  restrictions,  and  the 
attainments  of  its  graduates  should  be  of  the  same  varied  and 
elevated  character,  as  prevailed  in  medical  schools  of  the  high- 
est rank,  and  he  urged  upon  the  Trustees  the  adequate  finan- 
cial support  of  this  important  department. 

The  Law  Department  of  the  University,  established  in 
1789  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Justice  Wilson,  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  ran  a  brief  career — one 
session — and  then  expired;  and  not  until  1817  was  any 
further  effort  made  to  give  instruction  in  law  in  the  Univer- 
sity. On  March  20,  of  that  year,  Charles  Willing  Hare,  of 
the  Philadelphia  Bar,  was  elected  Professor  of  Law,  but,  like 
Mr.  Justice  Wilson,  he  lectured  for  only  one  year,  when, 
for  a  second  time,  the  instruction  came  to  an  end.  It  was 
not  until  1 850,  on  April  2,  that  another  effort  was  m.ade  to 
inaugurate  a  Law  School,  and  Judge  George  Sharswood,  of 
Philadelphia,  was  elected  Professor  of  Law.  On  September 
30,  following,  he  delivered  his  introductory  lecture.  In 
1852  the  Trustees  re-established  the  Law  School  with  a 
Faculty  of  three  professors,  and  it  entered  upon  a  more 
prosperous  career.  By  a  rule  of  court,  adopted  in  1 87  5",  its 
graduates  were  admitted  to  practice  in  the  District  Court 
of  Philadelphia.  In  1883  the  school  enrolled  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  students,  a  small  attendance,  if  one  consider 
the  possibilities  of  a  flourishing  university  located  in  a  great 
city  like  Piiiladclphia. 

188 


^T.  40]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Dr.  Pepper  recognized  at  once  the  difficulties  which  en- 
compassed the  school,  and  clearly  pointed  out  perhaps  the 
chief  of  them,  in  his  first  report  as  Provost : 

"  It  is  not  a  creditable  state  of  affairs  that  this  Department 
should  continue  as  it  is  at  present,  the  only  one  in  the  University 
for  which  no  endowment  or  building  fund  has  been  provided  ;  and 
that  it  should  be  left  to  the  unaided  efforts  of  its  Faculty  to  main- 
tain and  increase  its  efficiency.  In  a  city  where  for  so  long  a  time 
the  legal  profession  has  occupied  a  commanding  position  in  point  of 
learning,  public  spirit,  and  wealth,  there  should  certainly  be  found 
those  who  will  see  that  this  Law  School  is  adequately  endowed." 

This  was  the  first  direct  appeal  for  the  erection  of  a  sepa- 
rate building  for  the  use  of  the  Law  School. 

The  whole  subject  of  veterinary  science  was  of  interest 
to  Dr.  Pepper,  because  of  his  familiarity  with  the  services  of 
Dr.  Benjamin  Rush.  As  early  as  1806  the  Agricultural  So- 
ciety of  Philadelphia  had  offered  a  gold  medal  "  for  the  best 
essay  and  plan  for  promoting  veterinary  knowledge  and  in- 
struction both  scientifically  and  practically ;"  and  on  No- 
vember 2,  1 807,  Dr.  Rush  delivered  in  the  University,  as  the 
introduction  of  his  course  on  "  The  Institution  and  Practice 
of  Medicine,"  a  lecture  upon  the  "Duties  and  Advantages 
of  Studying  the  Diseases  of  Domestic  Animals  and  the  Rem- 
edies Proper  to  Remove  Them,"  which  was  reprinted  in 
the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Philadelphia  Agricultural  Society."  ^ 
After  explaining  the  importance  of  the  subject  and  alluding 
to  the  fact  that  no  veterinary  school  had  been  established  in 
the  United  States,  Dr.  Rush  concluded  with  the  following 
words :  "  I  have  lived  to  see  the  Medical  School  of  Phila- 


'  VoL  I.,  1808,  p.  49. 
189 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1882 

delphia  emerge  from  small  beginnings  and  gradually  ad- 
vance to  its  present  flourishing  condition,  but  I  am  not  yet 
satisfied  with  its  prosperity  and  fame,  nor  shall  I  be  so  until 
I  see  the  veterinary  science  taught  in  our  University." 

Dr.  Pepper  now  took  up  Rush's  idea  and  urged  the  estab- 
lishing of  a  Department  of  Veterinary  Medicine. 

"  One  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  present  age,"  said  he, 
"  springing  from  its  vigorous  humanizing  spirit,  is  the  large  share  of 
attention  that  is  paid  to  improving  the  condition  of  the  lower  ani- 
mals upon  the  ground  of  sound  commercial  policy,  and  it  is  desira- 
ble that  careful  study  be  given  to  the  best  means  of  promoting  their 
health  and  comfort." 

In  conformity  to  these  humane  ideas,  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees, on  November  14,  1882,  through  the  efforts  of  Dr. 
Pepper,  were  enabled  to  announce  the  establishment  of  a 
special  Department  of  Veterinary  Medicine ;  and  Dr.  Rush 
Shippen  Huidekoper  was  elected  Professor  of  Veterinary 
Anatomy  and  Pathology.  A  building  admirably  adapted 
for  the  School  had  been  erected  during  the  year  at  a  cost  of 
seventeen  thousand  dollars.  This  was  the  first  building 
added  to  the  University  during  Dr.  Pepper's  Provostship. 

Thus  after  an  interval  of  seventy-five  years  fi^om  the  time 
when  Dr.  Rush  made  his  memorable  address,  his  wish  that  a 
School  of  Veterinary  Medicine  be  established  in  the  Univer- 
sity was  realized.  Twenty  thousand  dollars.  Dr.  Pepper 
announced,  had  already  been  given  towards  the  endowment, 
which,  he  said,  should  not  be  less  than  two  hundred  thou- 
sand, and  he  intimated  the  source  from  which  the  remainder 
must  be  obtained, — that  the  very  large  number  of  persons 
who  are  interested  in  the  full  success  of  this  important  move- 
ment must  contribute  freely  in  order  to  secure  this  result. 

190 


JEr.  39]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Until  Dr.  Pepper's  accession  to  the  Provostship  the  Uni- 
versity had  concerned  itself  but  little  in  the  wants  of  ad- 
vanced students. 

"  Yet  it  is  clear,"  said  he,  "  that  one  of  the  most  important 
functions  of  the  University  is  to  provide  every  possible  accommo- 
dation for  such  students  as  are  desirous  of  pursuing  their  investiga- 
tions far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  ordinary  college  curriculum. 
The  presence  of  even  a  limited  number  exercises  an  admirable 
influence  upon  the  entire  University  and  tends  to  elevate  the 
standard  of  scholarship  and  impart  earnestness  to  the  general  body 
of  students." 

Acting  upon  this  conviction,  he  had  urged  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Faculty  of  Philosophy  "  which  should  supervise 
and  conduct  special  advanced  instruction  in  a  special  number 
of  subjects,"  and  on  November  14,  1882,  the  Trustees 
authorized  its  organization. 

The  conditions  preliminary  to  receiving  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  fixed  at  this  time  were  easy  and 
were  not  wholly  satisfactory  to  the  University  Faculty  at 
the  time,  but  a  beginning  had  been  made.  The  candi- 
date was  required  to  pursue  three  subjects,  one  of  which 
should  be  the  major,  or  principal  subject.'^  He  urged  "  the 
necessity  of  establishing  a  number  of  endowed  scholarships 
and  fellowships  in  connection  with  the  various  departments 
of  the  University,"  the  first  movement  in  this  direction  in  its 
history,  and,  as  was  characteristic  with  him  in  all  his  enter- 


^  The  subjects  at  this  time  were  Mathematics,  Zoology,  Geol- 
ogy, Political  and  Social  Science,  Inorganic  Chemistry,  Physics, 
Law,  Mineralogy,  Music,  Botany,  Organic  Chemistry,  and  Philol- 
ogy.     Provost's  Report,  1883,  App.  IV. 

.191 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1882 

prises,  he  led  the  movement  by  endowing  three  scholarships, 
December  12,  1882,  "with  the  condition  that  they  bear  the 
name  of  the  Benjamin  Franklin  Scholarships,  in  honor  of  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  those  who  have  labored  earnestly  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  University."^  He  urged  the 
establishment  of  Fellowships  in  the  Department  of  Philos- 
ophy which  should  yield  no  less  than  four  hundred  dollars  a 
year,  giving  as  his  reason  : 

"  It  must  be  remembered  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  those 
who  are  best  qualified  or  desire  to  pursue  advanced  studies  or  to 
enter  upon  original  investigation  after  the  completion  of  their  ordi- 
nary- college  course,  are  possessed  of  but  limited  resources,  which 
have  been  alreadv  heavilv  taxed.  The  interests  of  education,  science, 
literature,  and  therefore,  of  course,  of  the  entire  community,  alike 
suffer  from  the  enforced  diversion  of  these  gifts  of  these  workers 
from  their  proper  held," 

In  order  to  strengthen  the  University  with  its  Alumni,  he 
had  urged,  soon  after  his  election  as  Provost,  a  plan  for  the 
organization  of  a  Central  Committee  of  the  Alumni,  which 
should  represent  the  several  departments  of  the  University  and 
itself  be  represented  upon  the  Board  of  Trustees.  As  it  was 
inexpedient  to  change  the  University  charter,  the  result  sought 
was  secured  by  the  consent  of  the  Board  that  every  third 
vacancy  in  its  membership  should  be  filled  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  nominee  of  the  committee  of  the  Alumni.  This 
committee  sent  four  nominations  to  the  Board  for  the  pur- 
pose.    The  first  appointment  under  this  rule  was  that  of 


^  Toward  this  endowment  he  donated  ten  thousand  dollars.  It 
was  his  first  large  contribution,  it  is  believed,  to  the  College  Depart- 
ment, and  was  increased  many  times  by  him  during  his  provostship. 

19a 


JEt.  39]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

George  Tucker  Bispham,  Esq.,  elected  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  George  Sharswood.^ 

About  the  time  of  Dr.  Pepper's  entrance  upon  the  office  of 
Provost  the  subject  of  college  athletics  was  attracting  its  first 
public  interest.  He  clearly  foresaw  that  it  was  destined  to  be 
one  of  permanent  interest  in  college  life,  and  he  determined  to 
take  the  initiative  and  direct  the  course  of  this  new  force. 
The  result  was  the  organization.  May  14,  1883,  of  the 
Department  of  Physical  Culture.  This  was  the  first  recogni- 
tion of  the  Athletic  Association  by  the  authorities  of  the 
University."  His  plan  provided  for  the  election  of  a  Director 
of  Physical  Training,  who  should  be  a  member  of  the  Col- 
lege Faculty.  "  The  organization  of  an  Athletic  Association, 
composed  of  matriculates  and  graduates ;  the  erection  of  suit- 
able buildings  for  physical  education,  and  the  construction 
and  laying  out  of  a  running-track,  base-ball,  foot-ball,  cricket, 
and  tennis  grounds  upon  the  portion  of  the  University  land 
designated  for  this  purpose ;  and  the  appointment  of  an  addi- 
tional standing  committee  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  act  in 
an  advisory  capacity  in  connection  with  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Athletic  Association  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  its 
general  control  and  interest."  It  was  planned  at  this  time 
that  the  new  Department  of  Physical  Training  would  be  in 
full  operation  by  the  spring  of  1884. 

*  July  3,  1883.  For  the  Resolutions  of  the  Central  Committee 
of  the  Alumni,  December  3,  1881,  its  plan  of  organization,  etc., 
sec  Provost's  Report,  1883,  pp.  59,  64.  The  Central  Committee 
of  the  Alumni  proved  itself  a  failure, — a  fact  often  admitted  by 
Dr.  Pepper.  Its  members  appear  to  have  lacked  the  energy  to 
accomplish  any  definite  results,  and  to  have  confined  themselves  to 
criticism. 

*  Provost's  Report,  1883,  p.  45  ;  App.  VI. 
13  193 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1883 

He  announced  in  this  report  the  gift  of  sixty  thousand  dol- 
lars, by  his  cousin,  the  late  Henry  Seybert,  Esq.,  to  endow 
the  Chair  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy,  to  be  known 
as  the  Adam  Seybert  Chair,  with  his  request  that  the  incum- 
bent should,  with  a  specially  appointed  committee,  investigate 
all  systems  of  morals,  religions,  or  philosophy  which  assumed 
to  represent  the  truth,  and  especially  the  subject  of  modem 
spiritualism.^ 

At  the  banquet  tendered  by  the  Provost  and  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  to  Lord  Chief 
Justice  Coleridge,  in  the  University  Chapel,  in  October,  1883, 
Dr.  Pepper,  on  introducing  the  distinguished  jurist,  utilized 
the  opportunity  to  speak  of  education  in  general  and  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  in  particular : 

"  In  these  latter  days  we  have  grown  familiar  with  the  prompt 
and  liberal  response  which  surely  follows  any  strong  appeal  from 
either  section  of  our  great  English-speaking  race  across  the  ocean 
to  their  kinsmen.  And  it  seems  to  us  the  surest  omen  of  the  con- 
tinued spread  of  peace,  of  civilization,  and  of  liberal  government 
over  the  entire  world  that  this  sympathy  and  sense  of  kinship  do 
thus  grow  stronger  and  closer.  But  it  is  pleasant  to  turn  back  and 
find  that  when,  in  1762,  the  College  out  of  which  this   University 


^  It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  bonded  debt  of  the  Univer- 
sity at  the  time  of  Dr.  Pepper's  induction  into  the  office  of  Provost 
was  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  ($445,489.86). 
In  1873  the  annual  deficit  was  thirty  thousand  dollars;  in  1883  it 
had  fallen  to  sixteen  thousand  dollars  ($16,238.37).  The  bonded 
debt  was  the  accumulation  of  repeated  deficiencies,  running  over  a 
long  term  of  years,  and  was  in  the  form  of  mortgage  bonds  issued  by 
the  University.  After  deducting  this  debt,  the  value  of  the  Uni- 
versity property,  clear  of  all  encumbrance,  at  this  time  was  two  and 
one-quarter  millions  ($2,241,914.76). 

194 


^T.  40]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

has  grown,  and  which  was  the  last  of  six  in  this  country  which 
received  royal  charters  previous  to  the  Revolution,  was  greatly 
in  need  of  funds,  Dr.  William  Smith,  the  first  Provost,  was  sent 
by  the  Trustees  to  enlist  the  sympathy  of  the  mother  country  in 
the  efforts  made  here  to  encourage  the  prosecution  of  the  higher 
learning." 

"  A  Royal  Brief  was  issued  by  the  King,  recommending  that  his 
subjects  should  contribute  to  the  endowment  of  this  College  as 
well  as  that  of  King's  College  (now  Columbia  College)  in  New 
York,  in  behalf  of  which  Dr.  Jay  had  gone  to  England.  The  re- 
sult was  that  in  a  comparatively  short  time  a  sum  was  raised  which 
was  truly  vast  for  those  days,  for  the  share  which  came  to  this  in- 
stitution was  nearly  7,000  pounds  sterling,  made  up  by  the  contri- 
butions of  no  less  than  12,000  persons  of  all  classes,  from  the 
King  himself  down  to  his  humblest  subjects.  This  money  con- 
stituted the  first  permanent  endowment  of  this  University,  and, 
although  great  things  have  been  done  since  then  to  enlarge  her 
sphere,  although  princely  gifts  have  since  been  received  (and  from 
some  of  those  who  either  themselves  or  in  the  persons  of  their  de- 
scendants are  present  at  our  table  to-night),  we  should  be  ungrate- 
ful indeed,  when  such  an  opportunity  as  this  offers  itself  for  speak- 
ing of  the  debt  which  American  scholars  owe  to  Englishmen,  did 
we  not  recall  this  noble  instance  of  the  liberality  of  those  who  de- 
spised not  our  day  of  small  things. 

"  If  time  permitted,  it  would  be  interesting  to  allude  to  the 
strange  vicissitudes  of  fortune  which  attended  the  early  years  of 
this  University  and  checked  the  extraordinarily  rapid  growth  it  had 
made  previous  to  the  Revolution.  But  it  is  more  important  to 
point  out  the  peculiarities  of  the  development  which  has  since  oc- 
curred, and  which  is  again  bringing  it  rapidly  to  the  front  among 
our  American  colleges.  Despite  the  strong  imprint  of  the  features 
of  the  Scotch  universities  stamped  upon  its  early  organization,  its 
progress  has  been  free  from  any  servile  imitation  of  these  dis- 
tinguished schools.      Still  less  has  it  been  found  feasible  or  desirable 

195 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1883 

to  attempt  to  follow  the  line  of  development  which  has  rendered 
the  great  English  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  so  famous 
as  centres  of  classical  and  mathematical  learning.  Peculiar  condi- 
tions and  influences,  not  easily  appreciated  at  a  distance,  have  led 
to  the  almost  complete  discontinuance  of  strictly  professional  teach- 
ing at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  But  certainly,  when  one  reflects 
upon  the  large  number  of  admirably  equipped  men  who  are  at  all 
times  found  in  political  life  and  in  the  learned  professions  in  Eng- 
land, it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  any  great  change  in  these 
Universities  in  this  respect  would  be  advantageous  under  the  social 
and  political  conditions  of  that  country. 

"  With  us,  however,  the  mission  of  the  University  has  been  a 
different  one,  and  in  the  case  of  most  of  our  leading  colleges  a  wise 
management  has  adapted  the  form  and  development  of  the  insti- 
tution to  the  public  needs  of  the  communities  which  were  develop- 
ing around  them.  The  great  and  distinguishing  feature  of  the 
universities,  and  that  which  separates  them  from  technical  schools, 
is  their  power  of  liberalizing  and  elevating  the  professions  in  this 
rapidly  growing  country,  where  it  has  been  necessary  for  men  to 
enter  upon  their  active  careers  at  a  comparatively  early  age.  It 
has  been  most  fortunate  that,  while  the  Faculty  of  Arts  has  been 
maintained  and  expanded,  the  professional  Schools  of  Law,  of  Medi- 
cine, and  of  Science  have  been  preserved  and  vigorously  sup- 
ported. Thus  it  has  resulted  that  our  universities  find  themselves 
to-day  more  than  ever  in  harmony  with  the  entire  community. 
While  on  the  one  hand  they  teach  with  increased  thoroughness 
and  efficiency  those  studies  which,  like  the  classics  and  higher 
mathematics,  are  chiefly  valuable  as  a  means  of  mental  discipline 
and  as  a  basis  of  future  and  riper  scholarship,  on  the  other  they 
present  as  the  natural  sequence  of  the  college  course  those  profes- 
sional studies  which  fit  men  for  the  most  varied  practical  careers. 

"  It  is  thus  that  our  universities  escape  the  charge  of  tending  to 
create  an  exclusive  or  aristocratic  class ;  it  is  thus  that  they  main- 
tain their  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  people ;  and  deriving  their 

196 


^T.  40]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

entire  support  from  the  benefactions  of  the  wealthy,  they  yield  a 
rich  return  in  the  vigorous  and  elevating  influence  which  they  dif- 
fuse through  every  walk  of  life.  I  have  called  this  University 
venerable,  and  I  did  so  advisedly.  It  is  not  the  oldest  even  of 
American  colleges,  and  in  comparison  with  the  ancient  and  glorious 
Universities  of  Oxford  or  of  Paris,  our  University  seems,  it  is  true, 
of  but  recent  growth.  But  when  we  recall  the  wise  and  the 
learned  who  have  graced  her  Faculties  ;  the  good,  the  brave,  the 
illustrious  among  her  sons ;  the  long  list  of  those  who  by  their 
munificence  or  their  devotion  have  advanced  her  interests ;  the  far- 
spreading  influence  she  has  exerted  throughout  this  country,  and 
always  in  behalf  of  sound  learning,  of  truth,  and  of  progress,  we  do 
well  to  call  her  venerable,  and  to  appeal  to  all  who  cherish  these 
precious  things  to  rally  to  her  support,  and  to  unite  in  enabling  her  to 
advance  towards  the  completion  of  her  mission. 

"  I  have  been  carried  far  beyond  the  limits  of  my  intended  remarks. 
I  rose  to  preface  with  a  few  words  of  explanation  the  toast  I  now 
propose  on  behalf  of  the  University, — The  health  of  the  Right 
Honorable  Lord  Coleridge,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England."  ^ 


^  Philadelphia  Evening  Call^  Wednesday,  October  17,  1883. 


^97 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

III 

THE    UNIVERSITY:    EDUCATIONAL    ADDRESS 

1885-1886 

IN  the  autumn  of  1885  Dr.  Pepper  accepted  the  follow- 
ing invitation  from  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  of  McGill 
University,  Montreal : 

"  Montreal,  September  Z2,  1885. 

"  We  are  just  completing  a  new  building  in  connection  with  our 
old  one,  in  which  we  have  large  and  convenient  laboratories  for  the 
various  departments  of  medicine,  culture-rooms  for  the  investiga- 
tion of  bacterial  pathology,  etc.  We  propose  having  a  formal 
opening  of  the  building  to  the  public  on  Thursday,  the  22d  Octo- 
ber next,  and  our  Faculty  has  deputed  me  to  request  the  Provost  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  to  assist  us  on  that  occasion,  and 
give  a  short  address  upon  the  value  and  importance  of  higher 
training  in  our  medical  schools  and  the  advantages  of  combining  a 
much  larger  amount  of  laboratory  work  with  our  didactic  teaching. 

"  I  know  the  numerous  engagements  that  must  absorb  your  time 
in  the  supervision  and  administration  of  such  an  institution  as  your 
University,  but  if  you  can  sacrifice  the  time  your  remarks  before  a 
Montreal  assembly  would  be  likely  to  prove  of  great  assistance  to 
the  advancement  of  the  higher  training  of  medical  students,  at  least 
in  Canada,  and  would  at  the  same  time  tend  to  induce  lay  friends 
to  show  their  approval  of  our  present  enterprise  in  a  substantial 
manner. 

"  Have  the  goodness  to  let  me  know  if  we  may  hope  to  have  the 
pleasure  of  your  presence  with  us  at  our  opening  ceremony. 
"  With  kind  regards,  believe  me,  yours  very  sincerely, 

"  R.  V.  Howard."  ' 

^  MS. 

196 


JEt.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Also  the  following  from  the  Chancellor,  Sir  William 
Dawson : 

"  I  have  learned  with  much  pleasure  from  Dr.  Howard  that 
we  may  hope  to  be  honored  with  your  presence  at  the  opening  of 
our  new  Medical  building  on  the  22d  inst.,  and  beg  leave  now  to 
ask  that  you  will  favor  Lady  Dawson  and  myself  with  your  company 
to  luncheon  on  the  22d  at  i  p.m.,  to  meet  some  of  the  officers  and 
friends  of  the  University,  and  to  proceed  with  them  to  the  opening 
ceremony." ' 

The  ceremonies  consisted  in  the  inauguration  of  the  new 
laboratory  of  the  Medical  School  at  McGill  University,  and 
Dr.  Pepper's  address  was  the  principal  feature.'^  He  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  to  urge  reforms  in  medical  educa- 
tion, which  he  had  advocated  eight  years  before  in  the  cele- 
brated address  on  the  subject  in  the  University  of  Pennsylva- 
nia.' Like  all  his  occasional  addresses,  this  one  was  prepared 
with  solicitous  attention  to  local  conditions  and  was  received 
with  marked  approbation. 

It  appears  to  have  been  his  intention,  when  he  assumed  the 
duties  of  Provost,  to  submit  an  annual  report  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees ;  but  his  second  report,  which  by  this  plan  would 
have  been  presented  in  October,  1884,  was  made  impossible 
by  a  prolonged  illness  in  his  family,  and  was  not  submitted 
until  October  1,  1885.*  The  two  years  which  had  passed 
since  the  last  report  had  been  full  of  activity  and  results,  as 

»  MS.  letter,  October  6,  1885. 

'  The  Gaxette^  Montreal,  October  23,  1885. 

'  See  pp.  74,  75. 

*  Annual  Report  of  the  Provost  and  Treasurer  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  for  October  i,  1885,  printed  for  the  University, 
1886,  18-20  pp. 

igg 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

his  report  shows.  A  vacancy  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  had 
been  filled,  largely  at  Dr.  Pepper's  instigation,  by  the  elec- 
tion of  James  MacAlister,  LL.D.,  Superintendent  of  Public 
Education  in  Philadelphia.  This  election  was  part  of  Dr. 
Pepper's  policy  to  strengthen  the  University  in  the  city,  and 
to  offer  the  strongest  guarantee  to  the  community  that  the 
obligations  of  the  University  to  the  city  would  be  faithfully 
discharged.  Some  difficulty  had  been  experienced  in  filling 
the  fifty  city  scholarships,  owing  to  the  lack  of  adjustment 
between  the  curriculum  of  the  High  School  and  that  of  the 
University.  It  was  hoped  that,  through  the  active  efforts  of 
the  Superintendent  of  Public  Education  in  the  city,  these  dif- 
ficulties would  be  overcome.  The  University  pursued  the 
liberal  policy  of  admitting  the  High  School  graduates  on 
very  favorable  conditions,  and  at  the  time  of  this  report  the 
Trustees  of  the  University  had  authorized  the  admission  of 
four  more  than  the  allotted  number  of  fi"ee  scholars,  thus 
making  the  actual  number  of  the  city  scholars  in  attendance 
fiftv-four. 

The  Provost  renewed  his  plea  for  "  some  general  agree- 
ment between  the  leading  colleges  of  America  as  to  the  re- 
quirements of  admission,"  a  sore  need  at  this  time,  and  one 
which  little  had  been  done  to  satisfy.  In  this  connection  he 
said: 

"  As  schools  which  prepare  students  for  college  are  constantly 
increasing  in  number,  it  becomes  all  the  more  urgent  that  a  certain 
stability  on  this  point  should  be  attained.  It  takes  several  years  for 
the  work  in  a  large  school  to  become  thoroughly  adapted  to  the 
requirements  for  admission  to  the  colleges  for  which  its  students  arc 
preparing.  It  may  be  assumed  that  the  frequent  and  extensive 
changes  of  recent  years  must  have  severely  taxed  the  resources  of 
these  schools  and  interfered  with  the  efficiency  of  their  instruction. 

aoo 


« 


]Et.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

There  is  reason  to  hope,  however,  that  less  change  and  less  variety 
will  occur  in  the  future.  Unless  the  conditions  of  life  in  America 
become  greatly  altered,  it  would  seem  that  the  requirements  for  ad- 
mission to  our  colleges  have  now  reached  a  standard  as  high  as  it  is 
desirable  for  them  to  be  carried.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to 
the  necessity  of  more  prolonged  and  more  thorough  work  in  the 
professional  departments,  such  as  those  of  law  and  medicine,  to 
which  students  pass  after  being  graduated  in  the  college.  If,  how- 
ever, the  age  at  which  young  men  are  to  be  finally  admitted  to  pro- 
fessional life  is  not  to  exceed  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  years  (and 
there  are  many  cogent  reasons  why  this  average  should  not  be  ex- 
ceeded), and  if  three  or  four  years  of  post-graduate  studies  are  requi- 
site, it  is  evident  that  colleges  should  arrange  their  requirements  for 
admission  so  that  students  of  an  average  age  of  seventeen  or  eigh- 
teen may  readily  enter.  If  such  a  course  were  adopted,  and  large 
inducements  held  out  to  students  who  desire  advanced  instruction 
to  pursue  post-graduate  courses,  it  would  be  possible  for  a  far  larger 
proportion  of  the  youth  of  America  to  pursue  a  college  education." 

This  brought  him  to  the  main  subject  of  the  true  univer- 
sity, the  ideal  for  which  he  was  always  striving.  *'  What 
seems  to  be  needed,"  continued  he,  "is  not  any  further  ad- 
vance of  the  standard  for  admission  to  the  College,  but  a  fuller 
development  of  the  system  of  residence  after  graduation  for 
the  prosecution  of  advanced  studies  or  of  original  investiga- 
tion." He  therefore  urged  the  establishment  of  scholarships 
and  fellowships.  The  Board  at  his  suggestion  had  estab- 
lished five  endowed  fellowships  in  the  Wharton  School  and 
two  appointments  had  been  made  in  June,  the  first  of  the 
kind  in  the  history  of  the  University.  Commenting  on  them 
Dr.  Pepper  said :  "  Unfortunately,  no  funds  have  as  yet  been 
contributed  to  the  endowment  of  those  fellowships,  and  much 
of  their  value  is  lost  by  rendering  them  available  only  to 

flOI 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

young  men  of  independent  means." ^  His  plea  for  endowed 
fellowships  came  with  greater  force  because  of  the  munificent 
act  of  Professor  John  Tyndall,  who,  in  the  summer  of  1885, 
had  endowed  the  Hector  Tyndale  Fellowships  at  Pennsyl- 
vania, Harvard,  and  Columbia  College,  New  York.'^ 

The  fund  which  provided  for  these  endowments  came 
from  the  money  earned  by  Professor  Tyndall  through  his 
lectures  in  America  in  the  years  i872-'73,  the  proceeds  of 
which  (^32,400)  he  generously  devoted  "to  the  encourage- 
ment of  advanced  study  and  original  research  in  physics,"  by 
establishing  scholarships  for  able  and  deserving  students. 
Dr.  Pepper  approved  the  position  which  the  University  had 
taken  "  as  to  the  superior  advantage  of  carefully  devised  elec- 
tive groups  of  studies"  over  free  electives,  each  student  being 
permitted  to  choose  "  no  isolated  subject,  but  a  group  of  sub- 
jects or  parallel  courses ;"  and  he  adhered  to  this  policy 
throughout  his  administration.  "The  experience  of  all  pro- 
fessors of  English  in  American  colleges,"  said  he,  "is,  that 
students  do  not  come  to  college  adequately  prepared  for  per- 
fect instruction  in  advanced  studies  in  English.  In  French 
and  German  the  case  is  usually  worse ;  in  many  instances 
the  student  who  elects  one  or  both  of  these  languages  as  a 
substitute  for  the  classics  is  advanced  scarcely  beyond  the 
rudiments  of  either  tongue."  Therefore,  the  proposition 
to  permit  an  election  between  Greek  and  the  modern  lan- 
guages, in  the  requirements  for  admission  to  the  course  lead- 
ing to  the  degree  of  B.A.,  could  not  be  fairly  discussed,  he 

^  James  Collins  Jones  ;  Francis  Newton  Thorpe,  American  His- 
tory and  Political  Science.      Catalogue,  1 885-1 886,  p.  33. 

^  See  letter  of  William  W.  Appleton,  Esq.,  to  the  Trustees  of  the 
University. 


JEt.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

said,  until  it  had  been  shown  that  the  preparatory  study  of 
French  and  German  was  as  systematic  and  thorough  as  that 
of  Greek  ;  and  not  until  this  was  the  case  in  the  best  pre- 
paratory schools  would  it  be  possible  practically  to  deter- 
mine the  relative  merits  of  the  ancient  and  modern  languages 
as  a  means  of  mental  training. 

As  a  step  in  the  proper  direction  the  standard  of  English 
in  the  University  was  raised,  at  his  instigation,  in  1884,  and 
an  examination  in  both  French  and  German  was  thenceforth 
required  of  applicants  for  admission  to  courses  leading  to  the 
degree  of  Ph.B.  and  B.S.  The  immediate  result  was  a  de- 
crease in  the  number  of  applicants  at  the  June  examination 
in  1884.  On  account  of  raising  the  standard  no  student  had 
been  successful  in  competition  for  the  city  scholarships. 
This  result  could  be  but  temporary,  however, as,  said  he,  "the 
preparatory  schools  may  be  counted  upon  to  support  the 
College  in  any  well-matured  advancement  or  improvement 
in  the  standard  of  instruction." 

In  1 883,  through  the  generosity  of  Dr.  Horace  Jayne  and 
the  collaboration  of  Dr.  Joseph  Leidy  and  Professor  Harri- 
son Allen,  Provost  Pepper  organized  the  Biological  School, 
which  was  opened  December  4,  1884.^  The  new  depart- 
ment was  planned  to  provide  instruction  for  men  and  women 
who  were  preparing  to  study  medicine,  or  who  desired  to  pur- 
sue special  lines  of  scientific  work.     Its  founder.  Dr.  Jayne, 


^  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Chapter 
XIII. :  "  The  Biological  School,"  by  Joseph  T.  Rothrock,  M.D., 
p.  327.  Dr.  Pepper  subscribed  five  thousand  dollars  to  the  fund 
establishing  the  school.  "  The  contributions  made  by  Dr.  Jayne 
personally  at  the  time  and  subsequently  have  been  not  less  than  fifty 
thousand  dollars."      P.  333. 

ao3 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

believed  that  under  proper  management  it  might  contribute 
to  strengthen  medical  students,  as  well  as  to  afford  facilities 
for  undergraduates  and  for  advanced  students  in  biological 
investigation.  Provost  Pepper  looked  upon  its  scope  and 
purpose  as  offering,  in  connection  with  the  University,  oppor- 
tunities of  a  scientific  nature  comparable  to  those  given  by 
the  University  Hospital. 

One  passage  in  this  report  well  illustrates  a  characteristic 
of  Dr.  Pepper — his  habitual  recognition  of  faithful  services 
among  those  to  whom  the  academic  affairs  of  the  University 
were  intrusted.  Though  the  advancement  of  the  University, 
which  he  recorded  in  his  report,  was  due  largely  and  often 
entirely  to  his  own  efforts,  he  did  not  neglect  to  pay  tribute: 

"  That  which  is  most  gratifying  is  the  decided  improvement  in 
the  tone  of  the  College  Department  manifested  by  the  general  con- 
duct of  the  students,  by  their  cordial  relations  with  the  old  students 
in  the  other  departments,  and  with  fewer  instances  of  infraction  of 
discipline.  Most  of  this  must  be  attributed  to  the  admirable  com- 
bination of  the  College  Faculty  and  to  its  wise  and  helpful  influence 
upon  all.  To  it  the  warmest  praise  is  due  for  fidelity  and  zeal 
individually  and  collectively,  not  only  in  the  discharge  of  laborious 
duties,  but  in  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  the  students  of  the 
University." 

In  no  instance  through  his  long  public  career,  strewn  with 
official  reports,  was  he  known  to  ignore  the  faithful  services 
of  a  subordinate  or  to  emphasize  his  own  personal  services. 
In  his  Reports  as  Provost  there  are  repeated  instances  of  his 
mention  of  individual  services,  a  recognition  too  often  con- 
spicuously lacking  in  publications  of  the  kind. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  he  was  a  freshman  in  the 
University,  the  first  instruction  he  received,  and  it  happened 

ao4 


vEt.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

to  come  from  Professor  Allen,  was  on  the  duty  of  attending 
College  Chapel.  The  old  custom  of  the  University  of  re- 
quiring attendance  at  Chapel  had  been  questioned  since  the 
last  Report,  by  some  of  the  Faculty,  who  held  that  enforced 
attendance  of  students  upon  religious  exercises  was  hostile  to 
the  true  spirit  of  religion  and  lessened  the  benefit  received  by 
those  who  were  really  interested,  without  any  advantage  to 
those  who  were  unwilling  listeners.  In  this  opinion  of  the 
minority,  Dr.  Pepper  did  not  coincide.  It  was  his  judgment 
that  the  general  result  of  the  old  University  custom  was  bene- 
ficial, and  that  to  give  the  Chapel  services  a  merely  voluntary 
character  would  operate  injuriously. 

The  problem  was  known  to  be  far  fi-om  settled,  but  Dr. 
Pepper's  innate  conservatism  was  indicated  in  his  decision  to 
adhere  to  the  ancient  custom.  At  this  time  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  was  reaching  out  into  the  colleges  and 
gaining  a  foothold  everywhere.  In  the  sectarian  Protestant 
schools,  it  was  able  frequently  to  form  an  alliance  with  the 
authorities ;  but  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  being  non- 
sectarian,  it  did  not  seem  advisable,  "  either  for  the  general 
interest  of  the  University  or  of  this  special  religious  work, 
to  accord  to  these  efforts  any  official  recognition."  "  They 
meet,"  continued  Dr.  Pepper,  in  his  report,  "  with  the  cordial 
sympathy  and  approval  of  the  authorities  of  the  University, 
who  have  uniformly  extended  to  those  in  charge  of  this 
movement  the  needed  accommodation."  He  recognized  the 
Talue  of  the  movement  and  gave  it  his  powerful  influence. 

The  Department  of  Physical  Culture,  the  organization  of 
which  was  completed  December  2,  1884,  by  the  election  of 
Dr.  J.  William  White  as  Director  of  Physical  Education, 
proved  an  immediate  and  pov/erfijl  means — indeed,  the  most 
powerful  yet  utilized — "  to  elevate  the  standard  of  conduct 

20s 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

throughout  the  College."  It  proved  to  be  the  preventive  of 
the  old-time  infraction  of  discipline.  A  large  room  in  the 
College  building  was  fitted  up  temporarily  as  a  gymnasium — 
"until,"  said  the  Provost,  "a  building  suitably  constructed 
for  this  purpose  can  be  obtained."  The  Athletic  Association 
had  thoroughly  proved  its  usefulness.  A  considerable  amount 
of  money  had  been  donated  with  which  to  provide  adequate 
quarters  for  it,  and  inter-collegiate  athletic  sports  were  for  the 
first  time  held  on  the  University  grounds,  October  10,  1885. 
His  activity  and  zeal  during  the  past  year  for  higher  medi- 
cal instruction  were  now  beginning  to  bear  fruit.  Speaking 
of  the  extension  of  the  medical  course,  he  said : 

"  The  good  which  it  was  believed  would  follow  the  courageous 
course  of  the  Faculty  in  cutting  loose  from  traditions  deemed 
injurious,  and  inaugurating  a  system  of  honest  thorough  medical 
teaching,  has  been  realized.  The  standard  of  the  scholarship  of 
the  students  steadily  improves,  especially  in  the  grade  of  preparatory 
education  and  in  the  proportion  of  graduates  among  them.  Stu- 
dents of  the  best  class  from  distant  parts,  which  in  former  years 
but  rarely  sent  students  to  the  University,  are  becoming  numerous. 
The  position  taken  by  the  University  is  exercising  a  powerful  and 
wide-spread  influence  on  the  medical  profession  and  on  medical 
schools.  Everywhere  the  tendency  is  seen  to  adopt,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  improvement  and  reform  introduced  by  the  University. 
It  becomes  more  and  more  evident  that  the  medical  schools  of  the 
country  must,  in  the  future,  be  divided  into  two  distinct  classes, 
— those  of  the  first  rank,  which  provide  a  course  of  instruction 
thoroughly  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  best  students  and  to  the 
rapidly  advancing  state  of  medical  science ;  and  those  of  the  second 
rank,  which,  however  celebrated,  may  in  their  teaching  lack 
thoroughness  and  methods  which  alone  can  meet  the  demands  of 
the  age.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  duty  of  the  University, 
whose  position  is  conspicuous  among  the  few  medical  schools  of 

206 


JEt.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

the  first  rank  in  America,  is  manifest.  There  mt;st  be  no  halting 
in  the  forward  movement ;  no  exertion  or  expense  spared  which 
may  add  excellence  and  completeness  to  the  system  of  instruction." 

The  forward  movement  which  he  now  urged  was  to 
make  the  session  of  the  Medical  School  occupy  the  full 
academic  year.^ 

For  several  years  the  University  observed  two  distinct 
Commencements,  the  one  for  the  Medical  and  Dental  De- 
partments, in  May ;  the  other  for  the  College  and  the  Law 
School,  in  June.  He  recognized  that  it  was  impossible  to 
render  both  occasions  equally  interesting,  and  therefore 
urged  that  the  Commencement  exercises  of  all  the  depart- 
ments should  occur  in  the  same  week,  "  together  with  the 
various  Alumni  meetings  and  entertainments,  the  Class-Day 
exercises,  the  College  sports,  and  their  interesting  historic 
celebrations,  which  should  render  Commencement  Week  a 
general  University  festival."  This  was  the  original  sug- 
gestion of  the  now  highly  important  Commencement  Week. 

The  Veterinary  School,  in  which  lectures  had  begun  in 
October,  1884,  had  meanwhile  been  thoroughly  organized 
and  had  assumed  a  high  position  in  the  country.  It  exacted 
a  preliminary  examination  of  its  matriculates  and  of  those 
who  were  candidates  for  a  degree,  and  an  attendance  upon 
a  carefully  graded  course  of  instruction  covering  three  full 
years,  each  session  extending  from  October  1  to  June  1, — 
"  a  noteworthy  stride,"  he  observed,  "  to  those  accustomed  to 
the  veterinary  education  of  the  past."  In  order  to  make  the 
school  of  the  highest  efficiency,  extensive  stables  were  built 
in  connection  with  it,  and  a  Veterinary  Hospital  established. 

'  From  September  15  or  October  i  to  June  i,  which  would  ex- 
tend the  session  about  six  weeks. 

207 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1885 

The  new  dcpanment  was  welcomed  with  great  favor  in  all 
quarters. 

It  was  during  the  year  1884  that  the  first  systematic  at- 
tempt was  made  to  improve  the  University  campus,  and  old 
students  will  remember  this  innovation  and  its  most  conspicu- 
ous monument  at  the  time,  the  iron  fence  which  was  erected 
to  surround  the  main  college  and  the  Hospital  lots.  This 
gave  place  some  fourteen  years  later  to  the  ornamental  and 
appropriate  hedge  which  now  beautifies  the  property. 

In  1884  the  University  secured  for  the  first  time  the  ser- 
vices of  a  salaried  Librarian,  Mr.  James  G.  Barnwell.  The 
books  belonging  to  the  University  Library  were  at  this  time 
scattered  among  the  different  departments,  but  the  College 
Library  was  housed  in  the  central  hall  of  the  main  floor  of 
the  College  building.  The  Library  was  growing  rapidly, 
making  "  more  conspicuous  the  lamentable  want  of  suitable 
accommodations  for  books  and  for  readers.  The  time  has 
now  come,"  said  the  Provost,  "when  a  separate  fireproof 
library  is  imperatively  demanded."  He  had  urged  his  claim 
at  his  inauguration,  and  had  appealed  in  its  behalf  eloquently 
to  the  Alumni.  Now  that  the  University  for  the  first  time 
enrolled  more  than  a  thousand  students  (1048)  and  had  a 
Faculty  of  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  (148),  the  necessity 
was  more  keenly  felt  than  ever.  He  named  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars  as  the  amount  required,  which,  he 
thought,  would  build  a  suitable  house  for  the  books  and  also 
for  Commencement  exercises. 

The  annual  deficiency,  which  in  1883  was  about  sixteen 
thousand  dollars,  was  about  four  thousand  ($3923.45)  in 
1884,  and  $9517.12  in  1885,  caused  during  the  last  year  by 
"  unusually  heavy  outlays  for  permanent  improvements." 
During  the  two  years  since  the  last  Report,  the  donations  to 

208 


JEt.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

the  various   departments  of  the   University  amounted    to 
$1 14,762. 

In  his  Report  as  Provost,  1885,  was  published  for  the  first 
time  the  bibliography  of  members  of  the  University  Faculty. 
It  covered  thirty-five  pages  of  the  Report  and  included  about 
eight  hundred  titles.  The  custom  thus  inaugurated  has  been 
observed  in  all  subsequent  reports. 

Not  all  of  Dr.  Pepper's  efforts  to  carry  through  large 
undertakings  were  successful.  Thus,  by  a  decision  of  one 
of  the  Philadelphia  courts,  an  institution  for  the  training  of 
girls  as  nurses  and  for  other  domestic  positions,  which  it  was 
hoped  would,  under  the  will  of  Eleanor  D.  Long,  become  a 
part  of  the  University  Hospital,  was  lost  to  the  University, 
a  loss  which  he  deeply  lamented. 

A  notable  event  in  academic  life  at  this  time  was  the 
production  in  the  original  Greek  of  the  "  Acharnians"  of 
Aristophanes,  on  May  14  and  15,  1886,  at  the  Academy  of 
Music.  It  was  the  first  presentation  of  a  Greek  comedy 
in  this  country.  Students,  alumni,  professors,  and  trustees 
co-operated  in  the  undertaking.  The  play  was  subse- 
quently repeated  at  the  Academy  of  Music  in  New  York 
City,  and  the  net  proceeds,  nearly  fourteen  hundred  dollars, 
were  contributed  to  the  fund  of  the  American  School 
of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens.  The  music  was  written  by 
Dr.  Hugh  A.  Clarke,  Professor  of  Music  at  the  University, 
who  conducted  the  orchestra.  The  principal  part,  that  of 
"  Dikaiopolis,"  comprising  fully  two-thirds  of  the  play,  was 
enacted  by  Mr.  George  Wharton  Pepper,^  a  nephew  of  the 
Provost,  and  at  the  time  a  member  of  the  junior  class. 


*  Mr.   Pepper  exemplified  that  rare  combination   in  student  life, 
pre-eminence  in  college  sports  and  academic  standing.      He  grad- 
14  209 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1886 

On  June  8  Matthew  Arnold  delivered  an  address  in  the 
University  Chapel  on  "  Foreign  Education." 

"  Surely,"  said  Dr.  Pepper,  in  introducing  Mr.  Arnold,  "  it  is 
with  peculiar  pleasure  that  we  have  assembled  this  afternoon  to 
listen  to  an  address  on  foreign  education  from  one  of  the  highest 
authorities  on  the  subject.  Naturally  the  subject  has  a  deep  inter- 
est for  us,  for  it  may  safely  be  said  that  with  each  year  a  greater 
degree  of  earnest  attention  is  paid  in  this  country  to  educational 
methods  and  their  results.  The  rapid  increase  of  educational 
foundations  in  every  part  of  America  j  keen  rivalry  between  the 
different  schools,  colleges,  and  universities ;  the  numerous  experi- 
ments in  progress  as  to  every  feature  of  education, — all  these  make 
the  present  a  fit  time  for  us  to  listen  to  a  calm  and  wise  review  of 
the  peculiarities  in  methods  of  education  which  have  been  developed 
in  communities  older  than  ours  and  among  widely  varying  condi- 
tions of  organization.  I  say  this  without  the  least  intention  of  dis- 
paraging our  American  methods.  I  firmly  believe  that  ours  are 
rapidly  and  accurately  adapting  themselves  to  our  special  circum- 
stances and  needs.  But  despite  this  there  are  many  persons  who 
share  with  me  the  feeling  that  to  us  certainly  no  less  than  to  others 


uated  with  high  honors  in  1887.  In  the  Law  School  he  attained 
the  highest  average  in  the  senior  year,  won  the  Sharswood  and 
Morris  prizes,  delivered  the  law  oration  at  graduation  (on  "  The 
Emancipation  of  Married  Women  ;"  one  hundred  and  thirty-third 
Commencement  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  June  5,  1889), 
and  was  given  the  Law  School  fellowship  (1889- 1892)  and  the 
Algernon  Sydney  Biddle  fellowship  (i 889-1 893).  In  1893,  "po" 
the  creation  of  the  Algernon  Sydney  Biddle  professorship  of  law,  he 
was  elected  to  the  chair.  For  a  particular  account  of  the  Greek 
play  see  the  Philadelphia  Times^  the  North  American^  and  the  Phila- 
delphia Preis^  May  15,  1886  ;  the  Philadelphia  Press^  April  2,  1886  ; 
and  Harper's  Weekly^  of  the  week  of  the  play. 

210 


JEt.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

might  be  applied  those  lines   which   seem   to   address   themselves 
directly  to  the  very  spirit  of  this  age : 

•  But  we,  brought  forth  and  reared  in  hours 
Of  change,  alarm,  surprise. 
What  shelter  to  grow  right  is  ours  ? 
What  leisure  to  grow  wise  ?' 

"  It  is  to  these  academic  halls  and  to  such  as  these,  whence  in 
ever-increasing  number  the  choice  men  and  women  of  our  race  are 
going,  that  we  look  in  confidence  for  those  energizing  and  pervading 
influences  which  in  a  degree  less  only  than  that  exercised  by  pure 
religion  shall  elevate  and  dignify  the  crowding  millions  of  the  future. 
Nor  can  any  speaker  more  fully  embody  and  illustrate  this  principle 
than  he  who  will  address  us  to-day.  It  will  seem  as  he  speaks  that 
not  only  his  voice  attests  the  value  and  necessity  of  sound  edu- 
cational systems,  but  that  we  hear  also  speaking,  more  strongly 
and  clearly  than  ever  before,  though  for  our  half-century  a  most 
familiar  sound  throughout  this  land,  the  potent  voice  of  that 
great  teacher,  that  wise  reformer,  that  complete  and  noble  man, 
Thomas  Arnold,  of  Rugby.  It  is,  then,  both  as  one  who  repre- 
sents the  imperishable  influence  of  this  great  man's  life  and  work, 
and  as  one  whose  close  study  of  all  educational  questions  has  made 
him  no  less  conspicuous  in  that  field  than  the  whole  world  recog- 
nized him  to  be  as  a  poet  and  critic,  that  I  have  the  honor  of  in- 
troducing to  you  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold."  ^ 

A  loose  sheet  in  Dr.  Pepper's  handwriting  marked  Diary 
for  Tuesday,  June  8,  1 886,  records  the  events  of  the  day : 

"Full  of  ordinary  business — 12.30  meeting  of  the  Directors  of 
the  Foulk  and  Long  Institution — finally  organized — good  practical 
working  Board  to  carry  out  our  plans — 4.00  p.m.  introduced 
Matthew    Arnold    at    the    University    for  his    lecture  on  Foreign 


'MS.,  June  8,  1886. 

211 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1886 

Education,  see  remarks — vigorous  and  well  preserved — bad  enun- 
ciation— terrible  pronunciation  of  some  words,  as  *  girls,  geeerW 
— quiet,  clear,  caustic,  appreciative — talked  of  primary  schools  on 
the  Continent — contrasted  them  favorably  with  those  in  England — 
full  of  religious  instruction — '•  Education  is  that  by  which  all  human 
beings  are  taught  all  things  human'  (Arnold) — something  more 
than  mere  useful  knowledge — '  The  children  human,'  a  frequent 
comment  made  by  him  in  visiting  the  best  public  schools  in  France, 
Germany,  and  Switzerland — important  to  '  organhche  verhindung 
(Constitution  of  the  Canton  Zurich)  between  the  population — the 
intermediate  and  higher  education.  He  closed  with  saying  that  no 
University  could  more  fittingly  do  this  than  the  University  of 
Franklin.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  already  accomplished  it  by 
the  establishment  of  the  fifty  prize  scholarships." 

Another  sheet  is  marked  Diary  for  June  11,1 886 : 

"Gave  breakfast,  11.30  a.m.,  at  Social  Art  Club,  to  Matthew 
Arnold.  Present :  E.  H.  Coates,  C.  H.  Clark,  L.  Clarke  Davis, 
Samuel  Dickson,  Wayne  MacVeagh,  Ellis  Yarnall,  General  S. 
Wylie  Crawford,  and  myself.  A  lot  of  good  talk.  Arnold  par- 
ticularly interesting  in  regard  to  the  future  prospects  of  Church  and 
State  in  England." 

Of  Arnold's  appearance  and  talk  at  this  breakfast  Dr. 
Pepper  made  record: 

"  6/  la/  86. 
"  Took  breakfast  with  Matthew  Arnold ;  one  would  naturally 
think,   '  What   a   good    fellow,  with    frank   and   easy   manners — a 
strong,  fine  figure — and  a  strong  face ;'   but   he   mouths  his  words 
and  talks  with  protruded  lips  and  indistinct  utterance  when  address-     ■ 
ing  an  audience  of  any  considerable  size,  altogether  the  result  of  || 
defective    elocution.     Voice  sufficiently  pleasant  in  ordinary  con- 
versation, and  with  force  enough  to  be  heard  clear  enough  in  any 
hall  if  properly  managed.      How  often    we  notice  this  in  English 

212 


^T.  42]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

literary  men,  even  their  public  men  whose  education  and  pursuits 
have  led  you  to  expect  better  things  in  the  way  of  public  speaking. 
It  seems  that  the  throat  and  chest  voice,  which  is  becoming 
habitual  with  the  English  for  conversational  purposes,  and  which  is 
so  agreeable  and  contrasts  with  the  high  pitch  of  the  nasal  voice, 
now  so  common  in  America,  is  ill  adapted  for  public  speaking 
unless  of  exceptional  force  and  managed  with  still  more  expres- 
sive art.  .  .   . 

^'  At  breakfast  we  talked  of  clubs — ours  he  finds  expensive — the 
University  Club  of  New  York,  ;^300  entrance,  and  ^lOO  per  an- 
num. The  Athenaeum,  London,  is  only  ;^8  per  annum.  But 
everything  with  us,  except  rent,  is  high.  He  spoke  of  the  late 
hours  which  were  becoming  the  rule  at  many  clubs, — the  Cosmo- 
politan, the  Garrick,  etc., — so  that  men  must  drop  out  of  them  as 
they  get  on  in  years.  He  commented  on  the  notable  position  now 
occupied  by  some  newspaper  correspondents  (Smalley,  e.g.)^  and 
spoke  of  a  breakfast  carre  with  Chamberlain,  himself,  some  fellow 
with  a  title,  and  Smalley.  Farrar  he  described  as  embittered  be- 
cause he  gets  no  church  preferment.  He  liked  Boston  and  Phila- 
delphia much  better  than  New  York.  Chestnut  Street  was  the 
most  attractive  street  in  America,  because  it  was  like  a  comfortable 
English  street.  One  turns  from  Arnold  with  more  liking  after 
having  seen  and  talked  with  him." 

"  At  Arnold's  lecture  a  good  instance  of  retributive  justice  was 
seen  :  the  room  was  very  crowded,  and  there  is  absolutely  no  venti- 
lation, the  architect  having  been  stupid  enough  to  neglect  it  utterly. 
One  woman  fainted,  and  I  learned  afterward  it  was  the  wife  of  the 
architect ;  pede  claudo."  ^ 

His  deep  interest  in  the  preparatory  schools  of  the  coun- 
try and  in  the  establishment  of  closer  relations  between  them 
and  the  University  was  appreciated,  and  the  School-Master's 

^  Diary,  June  13. 

213 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

Association,  early  in  April,  1 887,  elected  him  an  honorary 
member.  They  would  gladly  have  asked  him  for  some  con- 
tribution of  his  time  and  creative  services,  but  they  knew  that 
he  was  already  overworked  and  that  he  would  neglect  no 
opportunity  to  further  the  purposes  of  the  association.  This 
was  expressed  by  the  Secretary,  who,  in  announcing  his  elec- 
tion, informed  him  that  the  school-masters  had  great  reason 
to  be  grateful  for  his  kindness  in  helping  them  organize.^ 

He  delivered  the  address  of  welcome  to  the  members  of 
the  Modern  Language  Association,  which  held  its  fifth  an- 
nual convention  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  this  year. 
Some  passages  in  this  address  are  worthy  of  preservation : 

"  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of  the  necessity  of 
the  classics  in  any  and  every  system  of  education  worthy  of  the 
name.  We  assume  that  to  be  conceded  as  beyond  discussion. 
Could  Milton  have  written  '  Paradise  Lost'  or  the  *■  Elegy  on 
Lycidas,*  or  Burke  his  oration  against  Hastings,  Landor  his  Dia 
logues,  without  a  profound  study  of  the  classics  ?  Could  Cor 
neille  or  Racine,  or  Goethe  or  Lessing,  or  Dante  have  produced 
their  immortal  works  without  such  study  ?  What  boots  such  ques- 
tioning ?  May  the  day  never  come  when  the  glorious  languages  of 
Homer,  of  Plato,  of  Sophocles,  and  of  Cicero,  of  Virgil,  of  Horace 
shall  not  be  recognized  as  the  very  keystone  of  the  highest  and  most 
inspiring  education  which  can  be  imparted  !  But  so,  too,  may  the 
day  never  return  when  the  rigid  sway  of  an  exclusive  system  shall 
prevail,  which  would  force  all  to  pursue  the  same  beaten  path  of 
study  or  would  deny  them  the  priceless  gift  of  education.  If  a 
college  education  be  good  for  a  man  to  have,  it  should  be  good  for 
a  large  proportion  of  the  community.  If  anywhere  in  the  world 
to-day  it  is  desirable  or  possible  that  a  university  system  shall  be 

'  MS.  letter  from  George  F.  Martin  to  Dr.  Pepper,  April  7, 
1887. 

214 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

kept  up  for  the  benefit  of  a  small  and  exclusive  class,  it  is  most 
certainly  neither  desirable  nor  possible  to  do  so  in  America.  Our 
colleges  multiply  rapidly.  I  rejoice  to  see  their  multiplication  my- 
self; each  one  becomes  a  focus  of  activity  and  growth.  Concen- 
tration and  wealth  and  the  tremendous  power  of  tradition  and  of 
prestige  will  come  fast  enough.  But  even  with  all  this  rapidity  of 
growth,  our  colleges  are  barely  maintaining  their  influence  and  hold 
over  the  swarming  millions  of  population.  Had  not  wise  heed 
been  paid  to  the  changing  needs  of  our  national  life  and  relations, 
and  to  the  changing  aspects  of  our  national  thought,  the  influence 
of  our  colleges  might  have  been  less  than  it  is  to-day.  Believing, 
as  I  do  most  earnestly,  that  the  future  safety  of  our  precious  insti- 
tutions depends  more  largely  on  the  wide  diffusion  of  thorough  and 
advanced  education  than  upon  any  other  influence,  I  welcome 
gladly  every  development  of  our  college  and  of  our  university  sys- 
tem which  brings  it  into  closer  touch  with  the  intellectual  needs  of 
our  people. 

"  Not  only  in  the  learned  professions,  but  in  every  branch  of  our 
marvellously  complicated  commercial  and  industrial  life,  do  we  need 
men  able  to  grasp  instantly  the  new  thoughts  and  facts  which  each 
day  develop  in  whatever  part  of  the  world,  and  carefully  trained  to 
observe  and  to  think  correctly  and  to  express  clearly  their  opinions. 
The  day  of  universal  language  has  gone  and  has  not  yet  come 
again.  Volapiik  is  dead  before  it  is  born.  And  yet  the  ceaseless 
activity  of  literary  research,  the  marvellous  productiveness  of  scien- 
tific investigation  distance  hopelessly  the  man  who  depends  on  the 
slow  and  uncertain  study  of  translations.  The  ever  increasing 
closeness  and  complexity  of  commercial  relations  ;  the  growing  con- 
cern which  all  nations  must  feel  in  the  vast  questions — social, 
religious,  political — which  are  under  discussion  everywhere ;  the 
striving  after  a  closer  touch  with  each  other,  even  though  universal 
arbitration  and  a  broad  federation  of  state  and  church  belong  to  a 
distant  golden  day  of  higher  humanity  ; — these  and  countless  other 
considerations   urge   the   more  general   and  earnest  study  of  those 

215 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

languages  in  which  such  mighty  voices  of  the  past  and  of  the  present 
speak  on  that  which  most  concerns  us. 

"  The  development  of  a  sound  system  of  teaching  modern  lan- 
guages will  never  encroach  upon  the  true  growth  of  classic  study 
and  influence.  The  evolution  of  the  one  will  be  matched  by  that 
of  the  other.  Heredity  will  ensure  increased  receptivity,  and  wiser 
methods  will  yield  results  in  efficient  scholarship  and  in  mastery."  * 

In  1786,  while  Dr.  Franklin  was  president  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, a  plan  of  a  college  in  the  borough  of  Lancaster,  Penn- 
sylvania, was  approved  by  the  General  Assembly,  which, 
out  of  respect  to  the  character  of  "  his  Excellency,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  State,  named  the  institution  Franklin  College." 
On  June  6,  of  the  following  year,  the  college  was  formally 
opened.  The  question  whether  Franklin  was  personally 
present  on  this  occasion  has  been  much  discussed.  It  has 
been  claimed  that  he  witnessed  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone 
in  that  year,  but  this  cannot  be  taken  literally,  as  the  college 
had  no  building  of  its  own  until  a  later  period.  The  evi- 
dence of  his  presence  is  strongly  presumptive ;  at  least  he  was 
not  present  in  the  Federal  Convention  at  the  time  when  he 
is  said  to  have  been  present  at  Lancaster.'  It  is  certain,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  present  four  years  later,  when  he  gave  a 
thousand  dollars  to  the  institution.  On  the  occasion  of  the 
centennial  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  college,  Dr. 
Pepper,  who  in  public  spirit,  magnanimity,  and  utilitarian 
pursuits  closely  represented  Franklin,  delivered  the  address,^ 

^  Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  Modern  Language  Associ- 
ation of  America,  vol.  iii.  1887. 

^  For  the  evidence  pro  and  con  see  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  pp.  112— 113. 

^  Address  on   Benjamin    Franklin,  by  William    Pepper,  M.D 
LL.D.,  delivered  at  Franklin  and  Marshall  College,  Lancaster,  Pa 

216 


^T.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

and,  like  Franklin,  he  accompanied  his  words  with  a  gift  of 
one  thousand  dollars.     In  the  course  of  his  address  he  said : 

*'  Franklin  was  admirably  equipped  as  a  popular  teacher.  Long 
study  of  the  best  models  of  English  prose,  aided  by  his  fine  literary 
sense,  gave  him  a  style  unsurpassed  for  clearness  and  directness, 
while  his  rich  vein  of  humor,  his  command  of  satire,  of  anecdote, 
and  of  terse,  sententious  phrase,  enabled  him  to  convey  large  truths 
in  such  portable,  attractive  forms  that  his  teachings  soon  spread  far 
and  wide  and  fixed  themselves  in  the  memory  and  speech  of  men. 
But  here,  as  in  all  cases,  that  which  gave  most  weight  to  his  teach- 
ings was  the  character  and  the  life  of  the  teacher. 

"  He  made  the  newspaper  press  a  power  for  good  as  it  had 
never  been  before ;  and  he  set  the  example,  and  adhered  to  it 
throughout  his  editorial  career,  of  preserving  the  columns  of  his 
paper  from  all  libelling  and  personal  abuse  and  all  purveying  to  the 
prurient  taste  of  a  section  of  the  community. 

"  He  was  ever  ready  to  recognize  a  public  need,  whether  of 
school  or  library  or  hospital,  and  to  devote  his  time,  his  energy,  his 
money  to  supplying  the  deficiency. 

"  No  man  can  carry  through  such  public  movements  who  is  not 
himself  liberal  and  who  does  not  give  his  full  share  in  every  way  to 
support  the  enterprise.  While  the  author  of '  Poor  Richard'  taught 
all  classes  alike  the  value  of  money,  the  duty  of  economy,  the  pride 
of  independence,  and  the  nobility  of  labor,  and  often  by  language 
or  simile  which  may  be  misconstrued  so  as  to  advocate  parsimony, 
the  same  self-taught,  self-made  man  was  incessant  in  all  good  and 
liberal  deeds. 

"  He  recognized  early  the  advantages  of  co-operation,  and  his 
treatment  of  deserving  workmen  is  a  suggestive  point  in  the  history 
of  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor.      Our  greatest  problem  of  to- 


on   the    centennial   anniversary   of   its    foundation.       1787— 1887. 
Philadelphia:   Dando  Printing  and  Publishing  Company,  1887. 

217 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

day  has  to  deal  with  these  relations.  Our  very  prosperity  forces  it 
into  greater  prominence.  The  liberty  and  political  rights  of  the  in- 
dividual give  to  it  unprecedented  urgency  and  importance.  It  may 
not  be  settled  by  force,  nor  by  legislation,  nor  even  by  the  church ; 
but  I  believe  it  will  be  settled  peaceably  and  lawfully,  and  to  the 
mutual  advantage  of  all  concerned,  by  a  wide  extension  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  organized  co-operation,  based  upon  a  human  yet  shrewd 
calculation  of  the  self-interest  of  both  parties  to  the  bargain  ;  and  I 
am  glad  to  believe  that,  as  Franklin  would  have  delighted  to  aid  in 
consummating  this,  his  spirit  and  the  influence  of  his  teachings  yet 
survive  among  us  to  assist  in  its  realization  and  to  remind  us  that 
toil,  thrift,  and  temperance,  with  true  humanity,  are  the  key-notes  of 
the  successful  solution  of  this  great  problem. 

"  Lord  Brougham  wrote  :  *■  One  of  the  most  remarkable  men, 
certainly  of  our  times,  as  a  politician,  or  of  any  age  as  a  philosopher, 
was  Franklin,  who  also  stands  alone  in  combining  together  these  two 
characters,  the  greatest  that  man  can  sustain,  and  in  this,  that,  having 
borne  the  first  part  in  enlarging  science  by  one  of  the  greatest  dis- 
coveries ever  made,  he  bore  the  second  part  in  founding  one  of  the 
greatest  empires  in  the  world.'  A  mere  enumeration  of  the  notable 
scientific  publications  of  Franklin  would  be  too  large  for  my  pur- 
pose. All  that  it  behooves  us  to  do  is  to  strive  to  appreciate  the 
quality  of  this  work  and  the  fact  that  it  was  done  without  encour- 
agement or  assistance,  with  the  simplest  self-made  apparatus,  and 
in  the  midst  of  distracting  and  absorbing  business  or  political  affairs. 
A  keen  observer  by  nature,  he  had  trained  himself  to  such  incessant 
activity  of  mind  and  to  the  employment  of  so  pure  and  inductive  a 
method  that  scarce  anything  escaped  him,  and  every  phenomenon 
observed  started  a  train  of  philosophic  reasoning  so  clear,  so  direct, 
and  so  well  confined  to  the  limits  of  the  probable  and  the  demon- 
strable that  he  was  capable  of  securing  astonishing  scientific  results 
with  means  apparently  most  inadequate.  The  only  period  of  his 
life  when  he  gave  himself  up  in  any  sense  to  scientific  investigation, 
the  only  period  during  which  he  was  not  distinctively  engaged  in 

218 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

some  other  absorbing  pursuit,  was  the  period,  1747  to  1752, 
when  he  began  to  enjoy  the  leisure  earned  by  hard  but  profitable 
work.  All  know  the  outcome  of  this  investigation,  and  that  the 
discoveries  made  by  Franklin  in  electricity,  from  their  entire  origi- 
nality, the  breadth  and  boldness  of  the  generalization  upon  which 
they  were  based,  the  accuracy  and  conclusive  nature  of  the  experi- 
ments by  which  the  hypotheses  were  established,  the  important  prac- 
tical results  indicated  by  him,  and  the  still  more  important  results 
which  have  followed  the  further  prosecution  of  the  same  study, 
have  conferred  immortality  upon  him  and  placed  him  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  natural  philosophers  of  all  time. 

"  Our  amazement  cannot  be  restrained  when  we  reflect  that  this 
work  was  accomplished  before  he  was  forty-seven  years  of  age,  and 
that  never  again  did  he,  who  was  then  incomparably  the  most  emi- 
nent American  and  whose  rank  in  European  celebrities  speedily 
rose  to  the  highest  point,  have  an  opportunity  of  applying  himself 
continuously  to  scientific  research,  although  from  that  time  to  his 
death,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  he  continued  to  produce  remark- 
able scientific  papers  containing  original  observations  or  striking 
generalizations,  showing  that  the  philosophic  faculty  was  in  vigorous 
action.  It  is  idle  to  speculate  upon  what  results  might  have  fol- 
lowed a  continuance  of  Franklin's  scientific  investigations.  It  has 
been  granted  to  but  few  men  to  arrive  at  even  a  single  discovery  of 
such  importance  as  that  on  which  his  scientific  fame  chiefly  rests  ; 
but  in  fertility  of  mind,  originality  of  suggestion,  and  prolonged  in- 
tellectual and  bodily  vigor  Franklin  appears  to  stand  unrivalled. 

"  We  may  more  reasonably  dwell  on  the  joy  it  would  give  him 
could  he  return  to  see  the  position  attained  by  his  favorite  branch  of 
science  and  to  note  that  it  is  growing  to  be  more  and  more  the  use- 
ful and  reliable  servant  of  man,  ministering  to  his  daily  wants,  and 
rendering  life  more  enjoyable  and  more  healthy.  But  still  more 
would  he  rejoice  to  see  the  laboratories  erected  in  all  parts  of  the 
land,  equipped  with  every  appliance  for  scientific  investigation  and 
crowded  with  earnest,  ingenious  students,  for  some  of  whom  Fame 

219 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

holds  high  honors.  He  would  feel,  with  just  pride,  that  to  him, 
more  than  to  any  other  man,  is  due  the  splendid  development  of  the 
scientific  spirit  and  of  scientific  education  in  America ;  and  that  the 
institutions,  the  societies,  and  the  libraries  he  founded,  or  whose 
foundation  he  stimulated,  are  carrying  forward  and  diffiising  with 
ever-increasing  force  the  precious  light  of  scientific  truth  which  he 
kindled  here. 

"  Franklin  hated  war.  He  hated  it  as  a  Christian,  a  philanthro- 
pist, and  an  economist.  He  hated  unjust  taxation  scarcely  less.  To 
the  familiar  accusation  against  these  he  added  one,  possibly  original 
with  himself,  and  at  least  very  characteristic  of  him.  He  charged 
them  both  with  the  crime  of  preventing  the  birth  of  children, — the 
one  by  the  downright  murder  of  many  men,  the  other  by  the  inter- 
ference with  the  normal  ratio  of  marriage,  whose  possible  services 
to  the  world  are  unknown  and  well-nigh  infinite.  And  this  vener- 
ation for  the  possibilities  of  the  young  lay  at  the  root  of  his  ardent 
advocacy  of  education,  equally  with  his  belief  in  the  conservative 
and  elevating  influence  of  all  sound  knowledge.  *  What  is  the  use 
of  this  new  invention  ?'  some  one  asked  Franklin.  '  What  is  the 
use  of  a  new-born  child  ?'  was  his  reply.  What,  indeed,  has  not 
been  the  use  of  the  loom  or  of  the  steam-engine  ?  what  not  the 
precious  value  of  a  Howard,  a  Newton,  a  Franklin  ? 

"  I  have  alluded  to  Franklin's  work  as  a  moralist,  a  statesman, 
and  a  scientist ;  it  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  I  were  not  to  speak 
here  of  him  as  an  educator  and  as  a  philanthropist.  He  was  essen- 
tially a  self-educated  man ;  and  he  has  left  us  a  charming  account 
of  the  methods  he  pursued  in  educating  himself.  Some  may  imagine 
that  much  of  his  characteristic  strength  and  usefulness  came  from 
these  lessons  of  early  hardship.  To  me  there  certainly  seems  no 
ground  for  any  such  conclusion  in  this  or  other  cases,  and  he  cer- 
tainly did  not  hold  that  view.  To  assert  that  a  great  man  who  has 
educated  himself  is  greater  on  that  account  involves  improbable 
assumptions.  The  number  of  very  great  men  is  extremely  small. 
They  occur  at  irregular  intervals  of  time  and  space.     When  one 

220 


JEr.  43]  THE   UNIVERSITY 

such  occurs,  who,  in  addition  to  the  other  qualities  of  real  great- 
ness, has  the  added  rare  quality  of  determination  to  improve  him- 
self to  the  utmost,  we  have  the  condition  produced  of  a  lad  with 
an  elective  course  of  studies,  secured  under  the  most  unfavorable 
surroundings.  Franklin  was  pre-eminently  such  a  lad.  Through- 
out his  life  he  was  unwilling  to  be  ^  a  speckled  axe,'  in  allusion  to 
the  anecdote  in  his  autobiography  of  the  man  who,  in  buying  an 
axe  of  a  smith,  his  neighbor,  desired  to  have  the  whole  surface  as 
bright  as  its  edge.  The  smith  consented  to  grind  it  bright  for  him, 
if  he  would  turn  the  wheel.  He  turned,  while  the  smith  pressed 
the  broad  face  of  the  axe  hard  and  heavily  on  the  stone,  which 
made  the  turning  of  it  very  fatiguing.  The  man  came  every  now 
and  then  from  the  wheel  to  see  how  the  work  went  on,  and  at 
length  would  take  his  axe  as  it  was,  without  further  grinding. 
*  No,'  said  the  smith,  '  turn  on,  turn  on  ;  we  shall  have  it  bright  by 
and  by ;  as  yet  it  is  only  speckled.'  '  Yes,'  says  the  man  ;  ^  but  I 
think  I  like  the  speckled  axe  best.'  But  while  here  and  there  lads 
of  rare  qualities,  but  lacking  educational  facilities,  surmount  all 
obstacles  and  achieve  greatness,  the  world  can  never  know  how 
many  fail  to  attain  their  legitimate  development.  It  is  true  that 
under  no  system  of  education  can  we  expect  to  produce  many  such 
men  as  Goethe,  who  graduated  at  Strasburg ;  or  Voltaire,  who 
studied  at  the  celebrated  Jesuit  College  of  Louis  le  Grand ;  or 
Newton,  who  was  an  M.A.  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge ;  or 
Franklin,  who  was  strictly  self-educated.  But  still  less  can  we 
expect  to  produce  under  any  one  fixed,  unvarying  educational  plan 
even  as  many  as  should  appear.  No  system  of  education  should 
be  devised  for  the  benefit  of  these  rare  and  exceptional  natures  ; 
but  it  is  among  the  positive  advantages  of  a  well-arranged  elective 
system  of  studies  that,  while  it  provides  for  the  dull  and  lazy,  it 
affords  the  freest  facility  for  the  development  and  expansion  of  the 
gifted  and  the  industrious.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
Franklin,  having  found  in  his  own  case  that  excellent  results  were 
attained  by  the  thorough  mastery  of  English,  followed  by  a  study 

221 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

of  other  modern  languages,  before  taking  up  the  classics,  should 
have  been  led  to  the  conclusion  that  such  is  the  natural  and  best 
course. 

"  Probably  all  are  familiar  with  the  interesting  history  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  Academy  of 
Philadelphia,  which  was  founded  in  1749,^  through  the  exertions  of 
Franklin.  In  the  tract  which  he  published  at  that  time,  entitled 
*  Proposals  relating  to  the  Education  of  Youth  in  Pennsylvania,'  he 
remarks  :  '■  The  good  education  of  youth  has  been  esteemed  by 
wise  men  in  all  ages  as  the  surest  foundation  of  the  happiness  both 
of  private  families  and  of  commonwealths,'  and  then  proceeds  to 
describe  with  much  detail  the  course  of  study  proposed.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  he  gives  a  foremost  place  to  athletics,  providing  '  that 
the  scholars  be  frequently  exercised  in  running,  leaping,  wrestling, 
and  swimming,  to  keep  them  in  health,  and  to  strengthen  and  ren- 
der active  their  bodies.'  In  this  he  anticipated  the  systematic 
instruction  in  athletics  which  has  been  introduced  into  our  acade- 
mies and  colleges  only  recently,  and  after  much  unreasoning  and 
ignorant  opposition.  Especial  stress  is  laid  on  the  fulness  and  thor- 
oughness with  which  English  is  to  be  taught  to  all  students,  while 
in  regard  to  other  languages  the  following  is  provided  :  *  All  intended 
for  divinity  shall  be  taught  the  Latin  and  Greek ;  for  physics,  the 
Latin,  Greek,  and  French  ;  for  law,  the  Latin  and  French ;  mer- 
chants, the  French,  German,  and  Spanish ;  and  though  all  should 
not  be  compelled  to  learn  Latin,  Greek,  or  the  modern  foreign  lan- 
guages, yet  none  that  have  an  ardent  desire  to  learn  them  should  be 
refused,  their  English,  arithmetic,  and  other  studies  absolutely  neces- 
sary, being  at  the  same  time  not  neglected.'  It  is  needless  to  point 
out  with  what  clearness  the  fundamental  principle  of  elective  studies 
is  here  recognized  and  how  thoroughly  in  accord  his  conclusions  as 


*  Dr.  Pepper,  in  1887,  did  not  know  the  true  date, — 1740;  the 
historical  investigation  which  set  the  question  at  rest  was  made 
later.     See  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

222 


^T.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

to  the  study  of  languages  are  with  those  which  are  now  at  last 
coming  gradually  to  be  adopted  generally.  What  followed  in  the 
history  of  the  Academy  (later  the  University)  may  be  mentioned 
briefly,  because,  if  I  mistake  not,  an  analogous  experience  was 
repeated  here  in  the  early  days  of  Franklin  College.  So  little  heed 
was  given  to  the  proposals  of  the  original  founders  as  to  the  pre- 
eminent position  to  be  held  by  English  studies,  that  the  classics 
gradually  acquired  control  of  the  entire  system  of  education  in  the 
institution,  and  in  1789,  the  year  before  Franklin's  death,  we  find 
him  publishing  a  spirited  and  forcible  protest  against  a  continuance 
of  this  perversion  of  the  original  trust.  It  is  here  that  the  familiar 
passage  occurs,  '  At  what  time  hats  were  first  introduced  we  know 
not ;  but  in  the  last  century  they  were  universally  worn  throughout 
Europe.  Gradually,  however,  as  the  wearing  of  wigs  and  hair  nicely 
dressed  prevailed,  the  putting  on  of  hats  was  disused  by  genteel 
people,  lest  the  curious  arrangement  of  curls  and  powdering  should 
be  disordered,  and  umbrellas  began  to  supply  the  place ;  yet  still 
our  considering  the  hat  as  a  part  of  dress  continues  so  far  to  pre- 
vail that  a  man  of  fashion  is  not  thought  dressed  without  having 
one  or  something  like  one  about  him,  which  he  carries  under  his 
arm.  So  that  there  are  a  multitude  of  the  politer  people  in  all  the 
courts  and  capital  cities  of  Europe  who  have  never,  or  their  fathers 
before  them,  worn  a  hat  otherwise  than  a  chapeau  bras^  though  the 
utility  of  such  a  mode  of  wearing  it  is  by  no  means  apparent,  and 
it  is  attended  not  only  with  some  expense,  but  with  a  degree  of  con- 
stant trouble.  The  still  prevailing  custom  of  having  schools  for 
teaching  generally  our  children  in  these  days  the  Latin  and  Greek 
languages  I  consider,  therefore,  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  chapeau 
bras  of  modern  literature.'  It  is  not  impossible  that  the  estrange- 
ment of  many  of  the  original  patrons  and  trustees  of  the  College, 
brought  about  by  this  departure  from  the  proposed  plan,  may  have 
aided,  to  some  extent,  in  causing  the  House  of  Assembly  to  arbi- 
trarily withdraw  the  charter  and  estates  of  the  College,  thus  causing 
a  disastrous  interference  with  its  work  during  several  years.     And 

223 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

now,  after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  we  see,  as  well  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  as  in  other  prominent  colleges,  success  beginning 
to  crown  the  efforts  of  those  who  would  insist  on  a  thorough  and 
advanced  study  of  English  as  one  of  the  essentials  of  all  English- 
speaking  students,  while  arranging  the  other  languages — Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew,  German,  French,  Italian — in  associated  elective 
groups." 

Dr.  Pepper's  gift  and  address  called  forth  a  letter  from  the 
President  of  Franklin  and  Marshall  College : 

"  I  have  been  instructed  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Franklin 
and  Marshall  College  to  express  to  you  their  thanks  for,  and  their 
high  appreciation  of,  the  very  liberal  contribution  with  which  you 
graced  your  presence,  and  your  excellent  scholarly  address,  at  the 
Centennial  celebration  of  our  College.  It  is  all  the  more  highly 
appreciated  as  a  tribute  to  liberal  education  and  culture  in  one  of 
Pennsylvania's  oldest  Colleges,  as  coming  from  the  eminent  and 
cultured  head  of  the  University  of  our  Commonwealth,  to  which 
all  our  Pennsylvania  Colleges  look  up  as  the  crown  of  our  State 
system  of  education.  The  thrilling  response  of  applause  with 
which  its  public  announcement  was  received  on  Commencement 
Day  indicated  the  appreciation  and  thanks  also  of  the  Alumni  and 
citizens  of  Lancaster.  I  may  be  allowed  to  add  for  myself  person- 
ally, as  president  of  the  College,  that  no  contribution  in  connection 
with  our  Centennial  will  be  more  highly  valued  by  the  friends  of 
our  College  and  myself  than  this  beautiful  tribute  to  our  institution, 
and  it  will  go  down  in  the  history  of  our  College  in  the  coming 
century  as  an  act  that  will  not  be  forgotten. 

"  My  acquaintance  with  you  personally  increases  my  desire  that 
in  the  State  College  Association,  about  to  be  formed,  not  only  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  may  take  her  fitting  place  at  our  head, 
but  that  you  could  grace  the  occasion  by  your  presence.  Not  only 
F.  and  M.  but  Lancaster  City  would  be  proud  to  welcome  you 
again  at  that  time  and  on  that  occasion.      If  you  cannot  possibly 

224 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

be  present,  we  shall  be  glad  to  welcome  the  honored  representatives 
of  your  Faculty. 

"  With  high  esteem  and  warm  regard,  I  remain 

"  Your  humble  friend  and  bro., 

"Thos.  G.  Apple."  i 

No  less  pleasing  was  an  estimate  of  the  address  by  the 
Matthew  Arnold  of  America : 

**  AsHFiELD,  Mass.,  September  17,  1887. 

"  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  a  copy  of  your  timely  and 
admirable  discourse  upon  Franklin.  I  have  read  it  with  great 
interest,  delighted  to  renew  in  your  graphic  portrait  my  impression 
of  the  great  man  whom  Matthew  Arnold  felicitously  associates 
with  Emerson  as  the  distinctive  American. 
"  Very  truly  yours, 

"  George  William  Curtis."  ^ 

One  passage  in  Dr.  Pepper's  address  found  its  way  into 
the  newspapers  and  helped  to  form  a  correct  opinion  of  the 
formation  of  the  American  Union,  the  Centennial  of  which 
under  the  Constitution  was  observed  in  Philadelphia  in 
September,  1887. 

"  Even  at  that  early  day,"  said  Dr.  Pepper,  referring  to  the 
years  between  1765  and  1775,  "Franklin  saw  clearly  and  outlined 
distinctly  the  grand  conception  of  an  Imperial  Federation  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  Colonies,  towards  which,  after  one  hundred  years 
of  delay,  steps  are  beginning  to  be  taken."  Commenting  on  this, 
one  paper  declared  that  Franklin  was  the  father  of  American 
Union,  because  twenty  years  before  the  Confederacy  he  had  urged 
the  union  of   the   Colonies.^     The   address  at  Lancaster  was   in 


*  MS.  letter.     June  17,  1887. 
'  MS.  letter. 

^  Harper's  fVeekly^  September  26,  1887. 
15  225 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

June.  "  When  in  next  September,"  continued  Dr.  Pepper,  "  the 
representatives  of  the  several  States  shall  meet  in  Philadelphia  to 
celebrate  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution,  the  final  and  most  important  scene  of  this  period  will 
be  enacted.  And  in  that  celebration  larger  space  should  be  made 
for  the  recital  of  the  part  played  by  Franklin,  who  shares  with 
Washington  the  immortal  glory  of  winning  and  keeping  our 
Union." 


226 


y*;T.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 


IV 

THE    UNIVERSITY 
1887-1888 

IN  October,  1887,  the  new  buildings  presented  to  the 
College  ot  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  New  York 
by  Mr,  Vanderbilt  were  opened,  and  the  occasion  was 
observed  by  a  dinner  at  Delmonico's,  on  which  occasion  Dr. 
Pepper,  who  responded  to  one  of  the  toasts,  utilized  the 
opportunity  to  renew  his  appeal  for  higher  medical  education. 

"  Upon  what  possible  ground,"  inquired  he,  "  can  be  explained 
the  apathy  and  indifference  of  our  practical  people  to  this  most 
practical  and  most  vital  matter  of  medical  education  ?  This  battle 
has  waged  fiercely  over  the  ordinary  college  curriculum,  and  the 
air  has  been  thick  with  pamphlets  and  strong  language  upon  the 
conflicting  claims  of  Greek  and  German,  and  upon  the  minimum 
and  maximum  qualifications  of  a  Bachelor  of  Arts ;  but  scarce  a 
word  for  a  long  century,  from  the  millions  most  concerned  in  its 
settlement,  upon  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  clinical  teaching 
for  the  medical  students,  or  upon  the  minimum  amount  of  instruc- 
tion which  may  qualify  us  to  take  in  charge  the  sacred  lives  of  our 
fellow-men, 

"  There  is  no  one  to  be  blamed  for  this  but  the  public.  Medical 
men  are  largely  governed  by  the  common  influences  which  control 
the  branches  of  human  industry.  Liberal  endowments,  with  wise 
conditions,  have  been  frequent  in  other  than  medical  departments 
of  education.  But  vou  can  count  almost  on  the  fingers  of  one 
hand  the  important  gifts  which  have  been  made  during  a  century 
to  that  department,  the   medical,  which  of  all   others   most   needs 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

support  and  supervision,  which  requires  the  most  costly  equipment, 
the  most  prolonged  period  of  pupilage,  and  which  prepares  its 
students  for  the  most  difficult  and  responsible  of  all  human  occu- 
pations. 

"  As  a  representative  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  whose 
medical  education  has  been  elevated  and  maintained  by  the  self- 
sacrificing  labors  of  her  Faculty,  it  gives  me  the  highest  pleasure  to 
testify  to  the  good  work  which  has  always  been  done  in  this  great 
school — the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  New  York. 
But  who  will  pretend  to  say  that  our  task  is  yet  completed,  or  that 
the  highest  standard  exacted  here,  or  at  Harvard,  or  at  Michigan, 
or  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  really  represents  the  honest 
convictions  and  earnest  wishes  of  the  leaders  of  the  profession, 
or  really  affords  adequate  protection  to  the  community  ?  And  if 
the  best  be  defective,  what  shall  the  verdict  be  for  the  balance  ? 

"  It  seems  to  me,  then,  A'Ir.  President  and  Alumni,  that  an 
equally  notable  feature  of  these  great  benefactions  is  that  they  have 
been  given  to  the  cause  of  medical  education,  and  given  so  wisely 
that  their  inevitable  result  must  be  the  elevation  of  the  standard 
and  the  development  of  the  true  practical  character  of  that  edu- 
cation." 

As  was  his  habit,  he  jotted  down  a  few  memoranda  of  the 

occasion : 

"  9/19/87. 

"  Dinner  at  Delmonico's ;  ceremonies  inaugurating  the  new 
buildings,  gift  of  Vanderbilt  (College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons, 
New  York). 

"  The  whole  appearance  of  Chauncey  Depew  is  of  a  man  full  of 
vigor ;  his  animation  quick,  cordial,  and  sympathetic.  He  is  an 
accomplished  raconteur.  He  is  always  steady  and  cool,  and,  mark- 
ing the  approach  of  a  joke,  his  face  assumes  a  quizzical,  humorous 
expression,  that  invites  applause  which  might  not  come  spontaneously. 
But  through  many  of  his  talks  runs  a  vein  of  strong  thought  and 
inspiring  ideas.     One  of  the  speakers,  J.  C.  Dalton,  M.D.,  was 

228 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

confident  of  large  results  which  would  follow  William  H.  Vander- 
bilt's  first  gift  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  as  this  had  been 
supplemented  by  two  large  gifts  from  other  members  of  the  family. 
But  Dalton  was  a  cautious  man,  and  he  remarked  to  me  that  the 
prospects  of  plenty  reminded  him  of  an  experience  of  his  friend 
Dr.  Tappan,  of  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  who  one  night  received 
a  message  urgently  calling  him  to  the  country  one  or  two  miles,  at 
eleven  p.m.  He  saddled  his  horse,  and  as  he  drew  near  he  saw  in 
the  dim  morning  light  a  man  running  to  meet  him  and  gesticulating 
wildly.  '  Ride,  doctor,  ride,'  shouted  he,  '■  there  are  two  of  them 
born  already.'  " 

In  October  he,  by  request,  presented  testimonials  to  the 
three  student  athletes  at  the  University,  one  of  whom,  Mr. 
Page,  by  a  vertical  jump  of  six  feet  four  inches,  had  won  the 
applause  of  the  athletic  world. 

"  I  well  understand,"  said  Dr.  Pepper,  "  that  this  is  an  occasion 
for  but  few  words  from  me.  I  am  here  rather  to  testify  by  my 
presence  to  the  approval  of  this  celebration  and  to  the  interest  in 
the  performances  here  celebrated  which  is  felt  by  the  official  repre- 
sentatives of  the  University.  Such  a  meeting  as  this  could  not 
have  been  organized  a  dozen  years  ago.  The  achievements  of 
those  in  whose  honor  we  have  assembled  would  have  been  deemed 
too  frivolous  to  merit  consideration,  and  especially  the  consideration 
of  those  engaged  in  the  work  of  education  and  of  fitting  young 
men  for  useful  and  worthy  careers.  But  careful  study  of  the  results 
of  education  and  prolonged  observation  of  the  after  careers  of  our 
active  men  have  shown  that  no  system  of  education  can  be  com- 
plete which  docs  not  embrace  the  physical  as  well  as  the  intellectual 
and  moral  powers,  and  that  the  most  frequent  cause  of  the  partial 
or  short-lived  success  of  many  of  our  able  men  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
imperfect  equipment  which  they  bring  to  their  work ;  and,  speaking 
for  myself  and  limiting  my  remarks  to  college  men,  I  confess  I 
think  that  more  young  men  injure  themselves  by  excessive  or  ill- 

229 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

regulated  application  to  their  studies  than  would  be  hurt  by  the 
fullest  cultivation  of  gymnastic  and  athletic  work  under  proper 
supervision.  It  is  too  easy  to  find  numerous  instances  of  men  who 
have  been  successful  both  in  study  and  in  athletics  to  make  it 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  fact  that  of  the  three  principal  figures  in 
to-day's  meeting  one  at  least  has  distinguished  himself  by  his 
University  career,  while  he  has  won  the  championship  of  the  world 
in  one  branch  of  athletic  work.  And  I  do  not  attach  any  strained 
or  exaggerated  meaning  to  this  friendly  display  in  different  exercises 
by  the  representatives  of  the  educated  classes  of  England  and 
America,  when  I  say  that  it  is  through  the  cultivation  of  manly 
and  courageous  qualities  and  through  the  promotion  of  sound  edu- 
cation and  training  among  those  two  great  branches  of  the  English- 
speaking  race  that  the  world  has  most  to  hope  for  in  the  main- 
tenance of  peace  and  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  liberty."  ^ 

His  third  Report  as  Provost  ^  was  made  to  the  Trustees,  Oc 
tober  1,  1887,  and  covered  the  two  preceding  years.    He  paid 
a  graceful  tribute  to  Hon.  John  Welsh,  LL.D.,  who  had  died 
since  his  last  report.     Mr.  Welsh  became  a  trustee  in  1861, 
while  Dr.  Pepper  was  a  junior. 

"  That  such  a  man,"  said  he,  "  who  esteemed  the  office  ot 
Trustee  as  he  did,  and  devoted  to  it  so  much  of  the  care  and 
munificence  of  a  life  consecrated  to  the  highest  welfare  of  his  fel- 
lows, might  well  inspire  his  colleagues  and  the  friends  of  the 
University  with  confidence  in  the  loftiness  of  its  purposes  and  the 
importance  of  its  work.  Assiduously  attentive  to  the  details  of  its 
business  affairs,  and   broadly  liberal  in  his  views  of  its  scholastic 


^  Philadelphia  Press ^  October  7,  1887. 

^  Annual  Report  of  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, including  reports  of  Departments  and  an  abstract  of  the 
Treasurer's  Report  for  the  year  ending  October  i,  1887.  Printed 
for  the  University,  i888,  128  pp. 

230 


Mr.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

development,  whether  as  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  or  as  a 
member  of  department  committees,  his  sagacity,  his  prudence,  and, 
above  all,  the  essential  nobility  of  his  nature,  gave  him  a  command- 
ing influence  in  the  councils  of  the  Trustees.  For  twenty-five 
years  he  exercised  these  qualities  in  the  service  of  the  University, 
which,  when  devoted  for  as  many  months  to  the  service  of  his 
fellow-citizens  in  the  celebration  of  the  National  Centennial,  im- 
pelled them  to  the  grateful  tribute  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  to  be 
disposed  of  as  he  would.  Amid  all  the  claims  of  religion,  charity, 
and  public  beneficence  that  were  always  present  with  him,  he  chose 
the  University  to  be  the  recipient  of  the  gift,  and  the  John  Welsh 
Centennial  Professorship  of  History  and  English  Literature  remains 
forever  one  of  the  monuments  to  the  memory  of  his  pre-eminently 
pure  and  useful  life."  ^ 

In  these  words  there  was  concealed  more  of  filial  piety 
than  those  might  discern  who  did  not  know  the  close  sym- 
pathy which  existed  between  the  two  men. 

The  most  urgent  need  of  the  University  at  this  time  was  of 
a  library  building,  and  Dr.  Pepper  renewed  his  former  appeal 
for  one,  but  now  planned  a  structure  which  should  be  utilized 
solely  as  a  library.  "  Encouraging  progress,"  he  said,  "  has 
been  made  towards  securing  the  needed  fund,  the  amount 
subscribed  up  to  the  present  time  being  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars."  This  would  erect  the  fire-proof  building, 
but  an  endowment  fund  at  least  twice  as  great  was  needed  for 
its  maintenance  and  extension.  He  had  thrown  himself  with 
great  zeal  into  the  library  movement,  and  had  been  instru- 
mental in  getting  the  fund  already  available.  The  act  of  the 
Board  in  1881,  establishing  the  Central  Committees  of  the 
Alumni,  had  stimulated  that  body  to  renewed  interest  in  the 


^  Provost's  Report,  1887,  pp.  3-4. 
231 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

University,  the  most  important  expression  of  which  had  been 
the  formation  of  the  Association  of  Graduates  living  in  the 
City  and  State  of  New  York.  Its  first  annual  dinner  had 
been  given  at  Delmonico's,  November  23,  1886,  at  which  Dr. 
Pepper  was  present,  and  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
New  York  branch  during  the  next  year  had  visited  the  Uni- 
versity and  otherwise  showed  its  interest  in  it.  To  save  the 
fruits  of  this  increasing  interest  among  the  graduates,  he 
urged  the  erection  of  an  Alumni  Hall. 

In  May,  1887,  the  Seybert  Commission  presented  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  University  a  preliminary  report  of  its  investi- 
gation on  modern  Spiritualism.^  Of  this  Commission  Dr. 
Pepper  was  chairman. 

"  My  friend  and  relative,"  said  he,  "  Mr.  Henry  Seybert,  who 
had  many  conversations  with  me  as  to  the  exact  intention  of  his 
gift,^  was  far  from  being  a  blind  believer  in  Spiritualism.  He  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  subject  and  regarded  certain  phenomena  as 
supernatural,  but  he  was  equally  aware  of  the  large  element  of  de- 
lusion and  fraud  which  is  apparently  inseparable  from  the  subject. 
He  had  no  wish  to  have  the  claims  of  Spiritualism  vindicated ;  his 
desire  was  to  have  a  fair,  searching,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  scientific 
examination  of  these  claims,  and  he  would  have  been  equally  will- 
ing to  have  them  repudiated  or  established  according  to  the  evidence 
adduced.     The  burden  of  proof  lies  with  the  Spiritualists." ' 

The  reference  to  the  approaching  ceremonies  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  forming  and  pro- 

*  Provost's  Report,  1887,  pp.  40,  50. 

^  Sixty  thousand  dollars  and  twenty  thousand  additional  for  the 
purpose  of  prosecuting  the  investigation. 

'  The  Seybert  investigation  carried  on  by  the  University  was  a 
scientific  test  of  the  claims  of  spiritualism.  The  report  of  the  Com- 
mission has  long  been  familiar  to  the  public. 

232 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

mulgation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  takes  us 
back  to  the  second  of  June,  1886,  when  the  Legislature  of 
New  Jersey,  by  a  concurrent  resolution,  invited  the  Gover- 
nors and  Representatives  of  the  thirteen  original  States  to 
assemble  in  Philadelphia  in  September  following  to  consider 
the  propriety  of  a  national  celebration.  The  original  sug- 
gestion emanated  from  Colonel  Jesse  E.  Peyton,  of  Haddon- 
field.  New  Jersey,  the  father  of  American  centennials.  The 
idea  met  with  popular  approval,  and  on  the  second  of  Decem- 
ber, the  Constitutional  Centennial  Commission  was  organized 
at  Philadelphia.  The  plan  grew  apace  and  soon  included  the 
active  sympathies  of  representative  men  from  all  the  States 
and  Territories  of  the  Union.  The  Commission,  through  its 
sub-committees,  decided  to  make  the  event  one  of  national 
importance,  and  to  celebrate  it  by  a  special  recognition  of 
the  progress  which  the  nation  had  made  in  science,  art,  and 
industry. 

An  immediate  and  sympathetic  response  came  from  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  from  the  Governors  of  the 
States,  from  the  heads  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  from  dis- 
tinguished men  in  all  callings  and  professions  throughout  the 
Union.  In  the  planning  and  in  the  execution  of  the  elab- 
orate program  Dr.  Pepper  bore  a  conspicuous  part.  The 
prospective  gathering  of  a  great  multitude  of  people  in  the 
city  and  the  execution  of  the  countless  details  incident  to  a 
vast  industrial  display  imposed  duties  of  a  delicate  and  very 
exacting  character.  Here  was  ample  opportunity  for  con- 
fusion and  mistake.  The  Centennial  of  1876  was  a  monu- 
ment of  well-arranged  plans  and  successful  administration, 
and  many  who  were  identified  with  its  direction  were  now 
called  upon  to  officiate  in  the  approaching  ceremonies.  Con- 
spicuous among  these  men  was  Dr.  Pepper,  whose  services 

233 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

as  Medical  Director  of  the  Centennial  were  well  known  to 
the  public.  The  approaching  celebration  had  to  be  planned 
to  interest  the  multitude  and  attract  the  great  body  of  pub- 
lic officials  of  eminent  station  throughout  the  Union.  The 
first  industrial  display  must  be  planned  so  as  to  include  an 
adequate  representation  of  the  material  interests  of  the  nation, 
and  it  must  be  made  in  a  practical  way.  Perhaps  no  part  of 
the  celebration  involved  more  careful  consideration.  The 
committee  in  charge  of  the  industrial  feature,  with  charac- 
teristic sagacity,  welcomed  suggestions  from  all  quarters. 
It  is  believed  that  the  most  useful  came  from  Dr.  Pepper. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  local  committee  he  seemed,  as  by 
right,  and  to  the  evident  relief  of  the  committee,  to  assume 
direction  of  the  principal  matter  in  question, — the  manner  of 
arranging  the  industrial  display  for  the  September  celebration. 
Taking  a  tablet  from  his  pocket,  he  consulted  some  notes 
which  proved  to  be  memoranda  on  the  celebration  in  1788, 
when.  New  Hampshire,  the  ninth  State  to  ratify,  having 
adopted  the  Constitution,  the  people  of  Philadelphia,  on 
the  fourth  of  July,  celebrated  the  event  with  imposing 
ceremonies.^  The  original  program,  drawn  up  by  Francis 
Hopkinson,  a  member  of  the  first  graduating  class  of  the 
University  in  1757,  included  an  industrial  display  and  the 
participation  of  the  great  institutions  of  Philadelphia  of  that 
day  in  the  varied  ceremonies.  Among  these  institutions  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  was  conspicuous.  Dr.  Pepper 
repeatedly  cited  Hopkinson's  original  program,  and  urged  its 
adoption.  He  then  submitted  a  plan  for  the  out-door  cele- 
brations in  September. 


*  See  Philadelphia  Packet^  July  4,  1788,  and  a  description  of  the 
celebration  in  the  Packet  of  July  9. 

234 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Under  Dr.  Pepper's  astute  and  practical  direction  the 
entire  public  display  was  planned,  and  four  months  later  his 
program  was  carried  out  in  detail. 

Military  companies  of  the  State  and  detachments  from 
the  regular  army  should  be  present.  Innumerable  floats 
bearing  representations  of  art  and  industry  should  be  drawn 
in  parade.  The  piece  de  resistance  of  the  original  parade 
should  be  drawn  from  its  resting-place  and  again  made  the 
conspicuous  object  before  the  people.  This  was  the  temple 
of  dazzling  white,  circular  in  form  and  more  than  twenty 
feet  high,  its  dome  surmounted  by  a  statue  of  Ceres  and 
supported  by  ten  fluted  columns  representing  the  States  in 
the  new  Union  of  1788.  Three  columns,  typical  of  the 
three  States  which  in  1 788  had  not  yet  ratified  the  Constitu- 
tion, were  waiting  just  outside  the  temple  to  be  placed  on 
their  pedestals.  The  whole  was  inscribed  with  the  motto, 
"  In  Union  the  fabric  stands  firm." 

Little  did  they  who  in  1788  prepared  this  fragile  em- 
blem of  the  new  and  feeble  Union  dream  that  a  century 
later  it  should  be  viewed  in  a  second  celebration  by  more 
than  a  million  souls.  Perhaps,  a  hundred  years  hence,  this 
emblem,  preserved  by  the  pious  care  of  posterity,  may  again 
grace  the  ceremonies  of  the  bi-centennial  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

The  three  days'  ceremonies  in  commemoration  of  the 
framing  and  signing  of  the  Constitution  closed  at  the  Acad- 
emy of  Music  on  the  evening  of  September  17  with  a  ban- 
quet, given  by  the  learned  societies  of  Philadelphia.  The 
suggestion  of  this  unofficial  conclusion  of  a  great  matter 
originated  with  Dr.  Pepper.  Naturally  he  was  thought  of 
for  the  place  of  honor,  and  the  eight  societies  united  in  the 

following  invitation : 

235 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

*•  The  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania, 
"1300  Locust  Street. 

"  Philadelphia,  September  i,  1887. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  gen- 
eral committee  representing  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  the  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  the  Frank- 
lin Institute,  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  the  Pennsylvania 
Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  the  Law  Academy  of  Philadelphia 
I  was  directed  to  invite  you  to  preside  at  the  dinner  to  be  given 
under  the  auspices  of  the  above  societies  in  the  Academy  of  Music 
on  Saturday  evening,  September  17th,  1887,  to  celebrate  the  cen- 
tennial anniversary  of  the  framing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

"  Yours  very  respectfully, 

"  F.   D.  Stone, 

"  Secretary."  ^ 

Invitations  were  sent  to  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  members  of  his  Cabinet,  to  the  Chief  Justice  and  the 
Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  to  the  leading 
members  of  Congress,  to  the  General  of  the  Army,  to  the 
Admiral  of  the  Navy,  to  Foreign  Ministers,  and  to  other 
persons  noted  for  achievements  in  war  and  statecraft,  or 
for  attainments  in  literature  and  science.  About  five 
hundred  men  accepted  the  invitation,  including  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  ex-President  Hayes,  and 
ex-Vice-President  Hannibal  Hamlin,  Cabinet  Ministers,  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  and  Associate  Justices, 
Judges  of  State  courts,  Foreign  Ministers,  Governors  of 
States,  eminent  clergymen  and  lawyers,  distinguished  scien- 
tific and  literary  men,   and   members   of  the   participating 

»MS. 

236 


^T.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

societies  and  their  friends.      Says  Mr.  Carson,  in  his  admira- 
ble history  of  the  anniversary  : 

"  The  Academy  was  appropriately  and  tastefully  decorated. 
Over  the  back  part  of  the  stage  was  a  large  scroll  made  of  flowers 
bearing  the  motto  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  *■  Virtue,  Liberty,  and 
Independence.'  Suspended  under  the  middle  word  was  a  representa- 
tion in  evergreen  of  the  '  Liberty  Bell.'  The  seats  of  the  parquet 
circle  were  hid  from  view  by  a  fixed  screen  of  evergreens,  palms, 
and  flowers  reaching  to  the  floor  of  the  balcony  above.  Upon  the 
stage  appeared  a  forest  scene  ;  tropical  plants  filled  every  available 
space,  giving  a  uniform  appearance  to  the  whole  surroundings.  A 
carpeted  floor  one  hundred  and  forty-two  feet  in  length  covered  the 
parquet  and  stage  and  in  it  sixteen  tables  were  arranged.  An  orches- 
tra of  forty  pieces  was  placed  in  the  parquet  circle.  Covers  were 
laid  for  five  hundred  guests.  Probably  never  before  had  so  distin- 
guished a  company  been  assembled  at  a  banquet  in  America. 

"  Provost  Pepper  presided,  with  President  Cleveland  on  his  right 
and  ex-President  Hayes  on  his  left.^  At  half-past  eight  o'clock, 
Mrs.  Cleveland,  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Waite,  wife  of  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States,  Mrs.  Miller,  wife  of  Mr.  Justice  Miller, 


^  "  The  Judicial  Table  was  presided  over  by  Richard  C.  Mc- 
Murtrie,  with  Chief-Justice  Waite  on  his  right ;  the  Congressional 
Table^  by  Hon.  William  D.  Kelley,  with  Senator  Ingalls  on  his  right ; 
the  Jrmy  and  Navy  Tahle^  by  General  John  F.  Hartranft,  with  Gen- 
eral Sheridan  and  Rear-Admiral  Luce  on  his  right  and  left  respect- 
ively ;  the  Foreign  Table.,  by  Wharton  Barker ;  the  Municipal  Table., 
by  Hon.  Edwin  H.  Fitler,  with  Hon.  Charles  J.  Chapman,  Mayor  of 
Portland,  Maine,  on  his  right ;  the  Governor's  Table.,  by  Hon.  James 
A.  Beaver,  on  his  right  Governor  Fitzhugh  R.  Lee,  of  Virginia ; 
the  Centennial  Co?mnission  Table.,  by  Amos  R.  Little,  Esq.,  on  his 
right  Hon.  John  A.  Kasson,  President  of  the  Commission." — Car- 
son, ii.  362. 

237 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court;  Mrs.  Sheridan,  wife  of 
General  Sheridan,  Mrs.  Daniel  C.  Lament,  and  Mrs.  J.  Dundas 
Lippincott,  entered  the  balcony  box  on  the  south  side  of  the  Acad- 
emy. The  doors  of  the  balcony  were  then  thrown  open  for  the 
entrance  of  ladies  who  had  received  invitations,  and  in  a  few  min- 
utes nearly  every  seat  was  occupied.^ 

The  position  in  which  Dr.  Pepper  found  himself  on  this 
occasion  carried  with  it  duties  which  might  well  make  a  man 
familiar  with  social  functions  of  the  kind,  though  of  lesser 
import,  nervous  and  hesitating.  But  it  was  his  character- 
istic to  be  calm  on  all  occasions,  and  his  life-long  habit  of 
perfect  self-control  bore  happy  fruit  at  this  hour.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  banquet  rested  with  him,  and  he  was  doubtless  as 
busy  a  man  as  any  sitting  before  him,  not  even  excepting 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  Foreseeing  the  demands 
of  the  occasion,  he  had  prepared  himself,  and  the  annals  of 
practical  events  will  be  searched  in  vain  for  a  better  illustra- 
tion of  elegance,  propriety,  learning,  and  eloquence  than 
were  his  remarks  at  the  opening  of  the  banquet  and  those 
offered  in  presenting  the  toasts  of  the  evening.* 


^  History  of  the  Celebration  of  the  Hundredth  Anniversary  of 
the  Promulgation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  edited 
by  Hampton  L.  Carson,  Secretary  of  the  Constitutional  Centennial 
Commission  ;  published  under  the  direction  and  by  the  authority  of 
the  Commission,  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  1889, 
vol.  ii.  p.  353. 

*  The  MSS.  of  his  speeches  on  this  occasion  show  by  their  inter- 
lineations how  carefully  he  prepared  them.  The  incidents  of  the 
banquet  are  preserved  by  Mr.  Carson  in  the  second  volume  of  his 
history,  pages  363  and  414,  and  also  in  a  pamphlet  of  86  pages  en- 
titled "  Banquet  Given  by  the  Learned  Societies  of  Philadelphia,  at 

238 


^T.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Referring  to  the  banquet  which  closed  the  Centennial 
celebration  of  1887,  Dr.  Pepper  said: 

"  No  better  way  suggested  itself  of  illustrating  the  influence 
which  education  has  exerted  under  our  Constitution,  than  such 
united  action  of  our  leading  institutions  of  learning  as  would  show 
the  position,  prestige,  and  power  attained  during  a  single  century 
by  these  bodies  representing  in  a  single  city  the  great  interest  in 
education." 

The  result  was  in  every  way  gratifying,  and  the  end 
sought  was  apparently  attained. 

In  1887  Dr.  Pepper  inaugurated  a  new,  popular  move- 
ment at  the  University  in  the  public  lectures  given  under  the 
auspices  of  the  University  Lecture  Association ;  the  first 
course  being  delivered  by  Rodolfo  Lanciani  on  the  Archae- 
ology of  Rome.  The  purpose  of  the  course,  and  it  was  ulti- 
mately fully  realized,  was  to  bring  people  from  the  city  to 
attend  lectures  at  the  University,  and  thus  strengthen  the 
University  through  the  social  life  of  the  town.  Until  this 
course  those  in  society  had  not  attended  University  lectures. 

In  his  early  reports,  it  will  be  remembered,  he  had  urged 
a  uniform  preparation  for  college,  and  he  was  now  able  to 
report  encouraging  progress  in  this  direction,  which,  he  might 
have  said,  was  due  almost  entirely  to  his  own  efforts.  An 
association  was  formed,  in  1886,  which  included  the  masters 
of  the  leading  preparatory  schools  in  Pennsylvania,  and  it 
was  hoped  that  it  would  extend  to  those  of  the  other  Middle 
States.  The  first  meeting  was  held  at  the  University,  and  it 
was  largely  attended  by  the  school-masters. 

the  Academy  of  Music,  September  17,  1887,  closing  the  cere- 
monies in  commemoration  of  the  framing  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States;   Philadelphia,  printed  for  Committee,  1888." 

239 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

Subsequently  steps  were  taken  towards  the  formation  of  an 
Association  of  the  Colleges  of  Pennsylvania.  This  resulted 
in  a  meeting  of  the  organization  at  Lancaster,  July  5,  1887, 
at  which  a  large  number  of  these  colleges  was  represented. 
So  great  was  the  interest  manifested,  that  he  thought  it  de- 
sirable to  bring  about  a  union  of  the  two  associations,  and 
he  announced  that  a  call  had  been  issued  for  that  purpose. 

The  Athletic  Association  had  prospered,  the  gymnasium 
had  been  improved,  and  convincing  evidence  was  furnished, 
he  said,  "  of  the  value  of  properly-regulated  gymnastic  ex- 
ercises and  athletic  sports  in  forming  a  higher  standard  of 
manly  feeling  and  of  personal  conduct  among  the  college 
students."  The  old  thorn  of  college  discipline,  which  had 
so  vexed  his  predecessor,  was  withdrawn,  and  the  malicious 
spirits  which  sometimes  disturbed  the  calm  of  University 
life  were  exercised  on  the  athletic  field.  Dr.  Pepper's  patron- 
age of  college  athletics  was  the  most  opportune  and  effective 
solution  of  the  problem  of  discipline  which  the  University 
had  ever  known.  Those  picturesque  rushes,  familiar  to  the 
memory  of  old  students,  when  doors  flew  off  their  hinges 
and  chairs  flew  out  of  the  windows,  ceased  as  soon  as  a 
rational  system  of  athletics  was  administered  by  the  college 
authorities. 

The  establishment  of  the  city  prize  scholarships  had  pro- 
duced all  the  happy  effects  anticipated.  The  University  had 
administered  them  in  the  most  liberal  manner  and  in  accord 
with  the  views  of  the  Board  of  Education.  On  several  oc- 
casions the  number  of  students  had  exceeded  the  fixed  limit, 
— fifty, — but  the  authorities  of  the  University  had  felt  that 
every  indulgence  should  be  extended  which  would  conduce 
to  the  great  object  in  view, — the  establishing  of  a  closer 
organic  connection  between  the  various  parts  of  the  educa- 

240 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

tional  system  of  the  community.  Dr.  Pepper's  ideal  was  to 
have  the  University  become  the  organic  centre  of  the  entire 
educational  system  of  the  Commonwealth.  That  all  ob- 
stacles might  be  removed,  so  that  deserving  students  might 
freely  pass  from  the  Grammar  School  through  the  High 
School  and  to  their  University  degrees,  it  had  been  decided 
that  graduates  of  the  High  School  might  be  admitted  to  the 
Freshman  class  of  the  University  without  examination,  un- 
less a  course  was  chosen  in  which  Greek  was  required.  In 
case  they  brought  certificates  of  unusual  proficiency,  they 
might  be  admitted  to  advanced  standing,  on  satisfying  the 
Faculty  of  their  readiness  to  pursue  higher  studies.  Similar 
privileges  had  been  extended  to  the  graduates  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Manual  Training  School,  an  institution  established 
in  1885,  and  forming  a  part  of  the  city  system.  Provost 
Stille  had  recognized  the  peculiar  position  of  Philadelphia 
as  a  commercial  and  scientific  centre,  and  had  been  instru- 
mental in  founding  the  Towne  Scientific  School.  Moved 
by  a  similar  comprehension.  Dr.  Pepper  had  urged  the  equip- 
ment of  the  school  so  that  it  might  provide  ample  facilities 
for  those  who  would  pursue  the  study  of  applied  sciences. 

At  this  time  the  pressing  need  of  the  University  was  an 
extension  of  the  laboratory  for  students  in  chemistry  and 
engineering. 

"  There  is  certainly  no  city  whose  prosperity  is  more  closely 
dependent  upon  the  great  processes  of  applied  science  than  is  that 
of  Philadelphia.  Nowhere  can  wealth  be  more  indebted  to  the  co- 
operation of  highly-trained  experts  in  all  of  these  processes.  It 
would  seem  that  the  most  natural  object  of  pride  of  Philadelphia 
would  be  the  possession  of  a  scientific  school  whose  scope,  endow- 
ment, and  equipment  should  be  unsurpassed  even  if  equalled." 
16  241 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

The  broad  foundations  of  such  a  school  were  akeady  laid 
by  means  of  the  munificent  bequest  of  Mr.  John  Henry 
Towne.  The  recognized  efficiency  of  the  school  led  to  the 
decision  of  the  Trustees,  in  1 886,  to  give  the  degree  of  Bach- 
elor of  Science  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  year,  instead  of  the 
fifth,  as  previously.  Of  the  forty-seven  students  in  the  Scien- 
tific section  of  the  class  of  1887,  no  less  than  thirty-five 
returned  to  acquire  a  professional  degree  by  pursuing  post- 
graduate work.  "  Thus,  gradually  the  Towne  Scientific 
School,"  continued  the  report,  "  is  approaching  that  to  which 
it  would  seem  destined, — that  of  a  strictly  graduate  school, 
with  a  course  of  practical  training  during  two  years  based  on 
a  College  Department  in  which  are  provided  various  elective 
scientific  courses  preparatory  to  the  subsequent  advanced 
professional  studies."  This  was  a  hint  of  his  ideal  of  the 
University, — a  collection  of  professional  schools. 

The  Biological  School,  which  now  had  an  organic  con- 
nection with  the  College  Department,  had  enjoyed  two  years 
of  marked  prosperity.  Its  accommodations  and  equipment, 
made  possible  by  the  devotion  and  constant  liberality  of  its 
founder.  Dr.  Horace  Jayne,  provided  facilities  for  original 
investigation.  One  of  its  four-year  courses  was  planned  as 
preparatory  for  the  study  of  medicine.  "  When  the  curricu- 
lum of  the  Medical  Department  has  reached  its  full  expan- 
sion and  extends  over  four  years,"  said  Dr.  Pepper,  "  it  will 
be  eminently  proper  to  allow  those  students  who  have  taken 
this  or  an  equivalent  course  in  another  institution  to  enter 
directly  the  second  year  of  the  Medical  Department."  A 
range  of  studies  in  natural  history  had  been  introduced 
among  the  elective  studies  in  the  Department  of  Graduates  | 
studying  in  the  University,  and  high  hopes  were  awakened 
of  the  valuable  results  fi-om  this  arrangement.     The  Bio 

242 


'Otlll 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

logical  School  conducted  two  expeditions  during  the  summer 
of  1 887, — one  to  Florida,  under  Dr.  Joseph  T.  Rothrock ; 
another  to  the  Bahamas,  in  charge  of  Dr.  Charles  S.  DoUey 
and  his  assistant,  Dr.  Milton  J.  Greenman.^  The  latter 
expedition,  which  had  sailed  from  New  York  on  the  ninth 
of  June,  was  admirably  conducted.  Though  it  might  seem 
that  the  season  of  the  year  was  unpropitious  for  such  an 
enterprise,  nearly  three  hundred  species  of  plants  and  animals 
were  collected,  not  including  pressed  plants,  and  eleven 
species  were  reported  as  new.^  The  expedition  to  Florida 
was  followed  with  a  like  result. 

The  period  was  one  of  great  activity  in  all  departments 
of  the  University.  The  Wharton  School  was  reorganized, 
its  Faculty  enlarged  and  its  course  extended.  An  announce- 
ment was  made  of  the  proposed  establishment  of  an  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science  in  connection  with  the  Uni- 
versity, having  for  its  object  work  in  the  domain  of  political 
and  social  science  similar  to  that  which  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia  was  doing  in  its  own 
fields.' 


^  After  completing  his  undergraduate  course  at  the  University, 
Dr.  Greenman  entered  the  Medical  School,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  1893.  ^^  ^^^  immediately  called  to  assist  in  the 
organization  of  the  Wister  Institute  of  Comparative  Anatomy.  As 
Assistant  Director  of  this  Institution,  Dr.  Greenman  has  been  en- 
abled to  introduce  and  equip  facilities  for  research  of  the  highest 
value. 

^Report  of  Biological  Excursion  to  the  Bahamas,  June,  1887, 
to  the  Provost  of  the  University,  in  Provost's  Report,  pp.  70—73. 

^  See  Report  of  the  Wharton  School  to  the  Provost  by  Prof.  E. 
J.  James,  Provost's  Report,  pp.  73-78. 

243 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

Dr.  Pepper  often  returned  to  his  favorite  theme,  the  ideal  Uni- 
versity, observing  that,  "  As  the  development  of  the  American 
University  system  progresses,  more  and  more  importance  attaches 
to  the  needs  of  advanced  students.  The  peculiar  conditions  of  our 
national  life  call  for  a  universal  system  of  college  education  with 
very  numerous  collegiate  institutions  scattered  over  the  country. 
Expressions  of  regret  are  heard  at  the  strong  tendency  to  the 
multiplication  of  such  establishments  in  America ;  but  it  seems  not 
improbable  that  this  tendency  arises  from  something  much  deeper 
and  better  than  personal  vanity  on  the  part  of  those  vi^ho  with  their 
wealth  found  new  institutions  instead  of  aiding  and  strengthening 
older  foundations.  It  may  well  be  said  that  it  accords  best  with  the 
genius  of  our  people,  favors  independence,  stimulates  local  interest 
and  pride  in  education,  and  opposes  centralization  and  exclusiveness. 
But  this  is  true  for  the  present  only  of  the  undergraduate  work. 
Advanced  students  and  original  investigators  must  still  repair  to  the 
older  seats  of  learning,  whose  rich  collections  and  large  corps  of 
special  teachers  offer  the  needed  facilities.  No  class  of  students 
equal  these  in  importance,  for  they  will  become  the  educators, 
the  scientists,  the  literature  workers  of  the  future ;  their  number  is 
increasing  with  gratifying  rapidity,  so  that  upon  the  basis  of  the 
American  college  there  is  growing  up  a  true  American  university 
system.  The  needs  of  these  graduate  students  should  be  met  with 
special  care  and  with  abounding  liberality.  Endowed  halls  of  resi- 
dence with  fellowships  attached,  endowed  professorships,  which 
will  attract  and  maintain  the  teachers  in  important  specialities, 
special  libraries,  special  laboratories,  special  funds  for  the  publication 
of  the  results  of  investigations — these  are  the  conditions  essential 
to  effective  graduate  work."  ^ 

The  Department  of  Philosophy,  in  its  fifth  year,  had 
now  become  more  systematically  organized,  with  higher 
standards  and  a  widely  extended  list  of  subjects.    It  admitted 

^Provost's  Report,  1887,  pp.  15-16. 

244 


JEr.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

women  equally  with  men  as  candidates  for  the  Doctorate 
degree,  and  made  this  degree  possible  to  be  attained  after  two 
years'  graduate  study,  but  only  in  exceptional  cases.  In 
order  to  make  the  Department  efficient,  there  was  needed 
only  an  endowment  for  fellowships,  an  advance  which  Dr. 
Pepper  earnestly  urged.  The  University  of  Pennsylvania 
is  non-sectarian  and  has  made  no  provision  for  a  Department 
of  Theology,  but,  as  many  of  its  graduates  pursue  studies 
in  divinity  after  leaving  college,  it  was  decided  by  the 
Trustees,  in  1 887,  that  a  Bachelor  of  Arts  of  the  University 
who  presented  a  diploma  or  certificate  from  the  proper  officers 
of  some  incorporated  theological  school  or  seminary,  testi- 
fying that  he  had  pursued  a  full  three  years'  course  of  theo- 
logical studies  and  had  satisfactorily  passed  the  required 
examination  in  them,  might  apply  to  the  Board,  through 
the  Provost,  at  the  proper  time,  and  the  Board  at  its  discre- 
tion might  confer  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Divinity  upon 
the  applicant.  This  action  applied  only  to  the  graduates  of 
the  University,  and  the  departure  was  experimental.  Dr. 
Pepper  said : 

"  There  will  be  no  difficulty,  if  it  be  found  desirable,  in  extend- 
ing its  operation  so  as  to  cover  any  divinity  school  whose  curric- 
ulum complies  w^ith  reasonable  requirements  and  whose  Faculty 
may  request  us  to  appoint  assessors  at  their  examination.  The 
establishment  of  this  degree  of  B.D.  is  in  accord  with  the  practice 
of  the  University  from  its  earliest  days  of  conferring  the  degree 
of  D.D.,  and  renders  complete  and  harmonious  relations  with  the 
entire  range  of  graduates  and  undergraduates." 

Ten  years  had  elapsed  since  the  great  change  had  been 
made  in  the  course  of  the  Medical  School, — the  adoption 
of  a  compulsory  three  years'  course  and  a  corresponding 

245 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

rearrangement  of  the  curriculum.  This  step,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, was  advocated  by  Dr.  Pepper  at  the  time  of  his 
well-known  address  on  "  Higher  Medical  Education."  Since 
his  inauguration  as  Provost  the  annual  term  in  the  Medical 
School  had  been  extended  from  five  to  six  and  a  half  months, 
exclusive  of  the  period  of  examination.  The  effect  had 
been  to  place  the  Medical  School  far  in  advance  of  any  other 
in  the  country,  except  that  of  Harvard  University,  which 
had  originated  and  first  inaugurated  the  change.  Dr.  Pepper 
now  urged  a  further  extension  of  the  course  from  three  to 
four  years  and  making  all  the  sessions  of  equal  length.  But 
this  implied  very  great  expense  and  the  raising  of  adequate 
funds,  to  which  for  several  years  he  had  given  a  large  portion 
of  his  activities. 

The  Dental  Laboratory  had  been  reorganized  since  his 
last  report,  and  was  admirably  adapted  to  the  needs  ot 
the  revised  and  extended  curriculum.  Equally  encour- 
aging was  the  report  from  the  Law  School.  It  had 
recently  acquired  the  valuable  library  of  Benjamin  Harris 
Brewster,  Esq.,  through  the  generosity  of  the  immediate 
family  of  the  late  George  Biddle,  Esq.,  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  Philadelphia  bar.  This  noble  gift  of  books, 
the  Trustees  determined,  should  be  known  as  the  George 
Biddle  Memorial  Law  Library  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  Law  Faculty  provided  for  its  proper  main- 
tenance and  growth  by  appropriating  not  less  than  thirteen 
hundred  dollars  per  annum  to  the  purpose.  The  increasing 
attendance  at  the  Law  School  made  imperative  some  settle- 
ment of  the  question  of  its  permanent  location  and  housing. 
At  this  time  the  law  lectures  were  given  in  the  college  build- 
ing. The  Provost  suggested  that  for  the  better  conven- 
ience of  professors  and  students  the  school  should  be  located 

246 


Mt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

nearer  the  city  and  federal  courts,  which  were  held  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  city.  The  Provost  renewed  his  appeal  for 
funds  wherewith  to  erect  a  suitable  building  convenient  to 
the  courts  and  law  offices  and  affording  accommodations  for 
a  large  and  growing  library  and  for  a  large  class  of  students 
in  both  general  and  special  courses,  and  he  announced  that 
the  Board  had  appointed  a  committee  "  with  power  to  pre- 
pare and  issue  an  appeal  to  the  legal  profession  and  to  the 
public  to  consider  sites  and  plans,  and  to  prepare  and  submit 
a  scheme  of  large  instruction."  In  suggesting  or  sanction- 
ing the  return  of  the  Law  School  to  the  city  Dr.  Pepper 
adopted  a  plan  which  doubtless  contributed  to  the  growth  of 
the  school  in  numbers  and  financial  strength  for  the  time 
being ;  but  the  school  in  the  city  ceased  to  be,  in  any  real 
sense,  a  part  of  the  University,  and  the  process  of  restoring 
it  to  its  academic  position  was  painful  and  slow. 

The  preceding  two  years,  he  said,  had  been  peculiarly 
important  ones  in  the  history  of  the  University.  They  had 
witnessed  the  establishment,  through  the  liberality  of  valued 
friends  of  the  University,  of  an  admirably  equipped  Training 
School  for  Nurses  and  the  installation  of  an  efficient  female 
superintendent  of  nursing.  During  the  winter  of  1887-88 
a  comprehensive  course  of  nursing  was  given  by  a  corps  of 
the  Hospital  Staff,  and  awakened  much  public  interest.  A 
feature  of  this  report  was  the  departmental  reports,  which 
were  particularly  full  and  instructive,  and  the  Bibliography 
of  the  University  Faculty  for  the  two  years  ending  1887,  of 
some  six  hundred  titles  of  printed  works  in  science,  art,  liter- 
ature, law,  and  theology,  gave  abundant  evidence,  as  he  said, 
that  all  departments  of  literature  and  science  were  being 
explored  and  illustrated  by  active  workers  connected  with 
the  University  Staff. 

247 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1887  that  Dr.  Pepper 
first  communicated  his  intention  of  resigning  the  Provost- 
ship.  His  letter,  sent  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  December, 
contained  this  news  and  also  suggestions  of  important 
improvements  in  the  University. 

"  December,  1887. 

"  I  beg  the  attention  of  the  Board  to  a  statement  which  I  am 
led  to  make  at  this  time  by  the  repeatedly  expressed  wish  of  some 
of  our  Alumni  that  the  year  1891  should  now  be  declared  an  anni- 
versary year  for  the  University.  It  might  fittingly  be  called  the 
Centennial  Anniversary,  because  it  was  in  1791  that  our  escheated 
charter  and  estates  were  restored,  and  that  the  continuous  existence 
of  the  University  began.  It  might  be  styled  the  Jubilee  year, 
because  nothing  is  needed  but  united  and  determined  effort  to  secure 
for  the  University  by  that  time  the  few  great  accessions  which 
alone  are  required  to  make  her  position  fully  satisfactory.  For  it 
may  be  said  to-day  that  all  her  Departments,  with  a  single  excep- 
tion, are  more  prosperous  than  at  any  previous  date.  The  Medical 
Department  is  contemplating  further  important  advances  which  will 
be  reported  upon  by  the  Chairman  of  your  Committee ;  but  at  the 
present  her  position  as  the  leading  and  best  equipped  Medical 
School  of  America  is  conceded.  The  classes  of  the  Law  School 
are  larger  than  ever  before ;  the  Faculty  and  the  course  of  instruc- 
tion have  been  enlarged,  and  important  measures  are  under  con- 
sideration for  the  future  increase  of  the  prosperity  and  dignity  of 
this  Department.  The  Dental  and  Veterinary  Departments  are 
recognized  as  the  best-equipped  and  most  advanced  schools  of  their 
kind  in  English-speaking  countries. 

"  The  College  Department  is  the  only  one  which  gives  cause  for 
anxiety,  but  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  if  certain  impor- 
tant changes  are  made,  and  certain  important  needs  supplied,  there 
will  be  a  speedy  accession  of  prosperity  to  this  Department  also. 
During  the  past  seven  years  the  acquisition  of  land  has  given  to  the 
University  unrivalled  territorial  advantages.    Her  organization,  which 


JEt.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

is  the  most  comprehensive  I  know  of  among  educational  institutions, 
has  been  rendered  compact  and  harmonious.  The  spirit  of  unity  and 
co-operation  which  inspires  the  Faculties  and  the  students  of  all 
Departments  has  awakened  an  unprecedented  activity  among  the 
Alumni.  Organizations  are  being  formed  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  from  which  much  valuable  aid  may  be  confidently  expected. 
It  is  indeed  apparent  that  nothing  is  required  save  a  united  and 
determined  effort  on  the  part  of  your  Honorable  Board  to  secure 
before  1891  all  the  conditions  which  will  start  the  University  on 
her  second  century  with  absolute  assurance  of  surpassing  success. 

"  Before  specifying  the  important  recommendations  which  I  have 
been  requested  by  your  Joint  Committee  of  Arts  and  Sciences  to 
report  to  your  Board,  it  is  proper  to  state  here  that  it  seems  impos- 
sible for  me  to  look  forward  to  a  much  longer  continuance  in 
the  high  office  with  which  you  have  honored  me.  It  is  now  this 
month  seven  years  since  I  assumed  its  duties,  and  I  have  been  sur- 
prised to  find  that  my  health  has  borne  even  thus  long  the  strain  to 
which  I  have  subjected  myself.  Indeed,  I  have  felt  that  this  con- 
tinuance of  my  health  and  strength  has  been  an  indication  that  my 
work  for  the  University  was  not  yet  ended.  But  I  am  sure  that  at 
the  very  latest  date  I  must  look  forward  to  resigning  in  1 891,  so  as 
to  be  able  thenceforward  to  devote  myself  exclusively  to  medical 
work  and  to  promoting  the  interests  of  the  Medical  Department  of 
the  University.  No  decrease  in  my  interest  in  the  general  welfare 
of  the  University  enters  into  this  decision.  It  is  almost  thirty 
years  since  my  connection  with  the  University  began,  and  since 
then  it  has  been  my  constant  aim  to  promote  her  welfare.  Nor 
am  I  influenced  by  any  dissatisfaction  with  the  emoluments  of 
the  office  I  hold.  The  salary  now  paid  was  agreed  on  between 
your  then  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  Mr. 
John  Welsh,  and  myself  as  a  i^ominal  sum  which  was  to  be  increased 
as  soon  as  the  finances  of  the  University  were  brought  into  a 
better  condition.  Any  such  increase  would  never,  however,  have 
made  any  diff'erence  to  me,  since  I   have  scrupulously  returned  to 

249 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1887 

your  Treasury  all  and  more  than  all  that  I  have  received  either  for 
teaching  or  for  administration,  I  would  gladly  see  several  large 
projects  realized  before  our  centennial  year,  so  that  my  successor 
might  find  the  University  fully  equipped  in  all  Departments.  The 
first  of  these  imperative  needs  is  a  fire-proof  library  building, 
and  I  would  ask  you  to  refer  with  power  to  your  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means  and  of  Buildings  the  preparation  of  plans,  the  selec- 
tion of  a  site,  and  the  prosecution  of  the  work  as  soon  as  the  needed 
funds  are  in  hand.  We  have  already  ^25,000  paid  in  and  $40,000 
more  subscribed.  It  is  clear  that  an  earnest  effort  will  secure  the 
balance ;  and  there  are  two  important  considerations  which  urge 
you  at  this  time  to  pledge  yourselves  to  erect  at  an  early  date  on 
the  University  grounds  a  fire-proof  library  building,  to  cost  not 
less  than  1^150,000,  to  be  maintained  always  as  a  free  library  of 
reference  for  the  community. 

"  The  first  of  these  is  connected  with  the  proposed  exploring 
expedition  to  Babylon,  under  Rev.  John  P.  Peters.  The  sum 
already  subscribed  justifies  the  belief  that  the  entire  sum  will  be 
raised ;  and  the  conditions  of  the  subscriptions  are  that  all  the  col- 
lections secured  shall  be  the  property  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, provided  suitable  accommodation  in  a  fire-proof  building  is 
supplied.  It  is  needless  to  point  out  the  advantages  which  would 
ensue  from  this  enterprise.  The  second  is  even  more  important. 
The  only  ground  needed  to  complete  the  University  property  is  the 
triangle  at  Thirty-sixth  and  Woodland  Avenue,  on  which  the  police 
station  stands.  It  is  not  proposed  to  displace  the  latter,  or  to  pre- 
vent the  establishment  of  a  fire-patrol  station  in  connection  with  it. 
Both  of  these  are  desirable  neighbors.  But  negotiations  which  I 
have  been  conducting  with  the  proper  committees  of  City  Councils 
justify  the  hope  that  it  may  be  possible  to  acquire  the  balance  of  the 
triangle  without  cost  on  condition  of  erecting  on  the  University 
ground  at  an  early  date  such  a  library  building  as  above  described. 
I  may  add  that  Mr.  Frank  Furness  has  already  prepared  plans  for 
such  a  structure,  with  an  alumni  building  or  theatre  adjoining,  drawn 

250 


JEr.  43]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

with  special  reference  to  this  piece  of  ground  as  a  site.  His  opinion 
is  that  it  is,  in  fact,  admirably  adapted  for  the  purpose.  The  plans 
will  be  submitted  to  your  committee,  to  which  I  trust  you  will  refer 
the  subject  with  power. 

"  The  project  to  erect  an  alumni  memorial  hall  is  a  significant 
indication  of  the  cordial  relations  now  existing  between  the  Uni- 
versity and  her  graduates.  A  vigorous  organization  of  those  living 
in  New  York  has  been  effected,  and  they  are  about  entering  on 
the  collection  of  a  fund  for  their  building.  Similar  organizations 
will  be  formed  this  winter  in  Boston  by  our  graduates  in  various 
parts  of  New  England,  and  in  Washington  by  our  graduates  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  and  in  Maryland. 

"  A  second  need,  scarcely  less  imperative  than  that  of  a  library 
building,  is  the  collection  of  the  additional  funds  for  the  erection  and 
equipment  of  a  building  for  the  laboratory  of  chemistry  and  metal- 
lurgy. We  owe  the  initiative  of  this  important  movement  to  the  lib- 
erality of  two  members  of  your  Board  (Mr.  Henry  Houston,  Mr. 
Joseph  D.  Potts),  and  such  progress  has  already  been  made  that  when 
the  even  more  urgent  need  of  a  library  building  has  been  supplied  it 
is  probable  that  the  laboratory  fund  can  be  brought  to  completion. 

"  But  I  must  say  further  that  your  joint  Committee  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  with  whom  I  have  held  anxious  deliberations  on  this  sub- 
ject, have  instructed  me  to  report  to  you  that,  in  their  judgment, 
certain  important  changes  must  be  made  in  the  teaching  force  of 
the  College  Department,  in  order  to  render  it  fully  efficient  and  to 
secure  for  it  the  prosperity  which  all  other  Departments  of  the 
University  are  enjoying. 

"  I  beg,  therefore,  that  your  Board  will  take  prompt  action  on 
the  proposition  about  the  library  building,  on  the  proposition  to 
accept  the  conditions  attached  to  the  Babylonian  expedition,  and  on 
the  above  report  from  the  Joint  Committee  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

"  William   Pepper,  Provost." 

On  the  13th  of  February,  1888,  the  Alumni  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  in  New  York  gave  a  dinner.     Dr. 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

Pepper's  speech  on  that  occasion  furnishes  a  clue  to  the 
activities  in  progress  at  the  University,  and  also  to  his 
educational  ideals. 

"  It  is  true  that  the  mere  number  of  students  is  not  a  test  of  the 
activity  and  influence  of  a  university.  The  elevation  of  standard 
and  tone,  the  seriousness  of  the  instruction  and  study,  these  deter- 
mine the  grade  and  the  influence  of  any  educational  institution. 
In  several  fields  of  our  work  it  may  fairly  be  claimed  that  the 
methods  and  results  are  unrivalled.  Equally  must  the  force  of  a 
university  be  measured  by  the  number  and  value  of  original  publi- 
cations produced  by  its  teachers.  The  list  published  in  my  annual 
reports  will  convince  all  that  thus  measured  your  Alma  Mater  is 
true  to  the  highest  standard  of  duty.  Allusion  has  been  made  to  the 
successful  presentation  by  our  undergraduates  of  the  Acharnians, 
both  in  Philadelphia  and  here  in  New  York.  Eminent  scholars 
have  united  in  extolling  the  service  thus  rendered  to  American 
scholarship.  But  even  greater  service  will  be  rendered  by  the  pro- 
jected expedition  to  Babylon,  if  the  facilities  desired  can  be  secured. 
Not  the  least  gratifying  evidence  of  the  rapidly  growing  resources 
and  fame  of  the  University  is  the  rapidly  increasing  number  of 
advanced  students,  mostly  graduates,  who  are  coming  to  us.  A 
very  few  years  ago  this  most  desirable  class  of  students  was  not 
represented  at  all ;  now  there  are  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty  in  attendance.  This  is  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  endowed 
fellowships,  and  of  all  the  needs  of  the  University  to-day  there  is 
not  one  more  urgent  than  that  for  a  number  of  such  foundations, 
costing  not  more  than  $8000  or  ;^  10,000  each,  and  providing  main- 
tenance for  an  advanced  student  during  the  tenure  of  his  fellowship. 
There  is,  indeed,  no  greater  demand  in  American  education  to-day 
than  for  such  endowments  as  these. 

"  The  special  sources  of  strength  of  the  University  are  not  only 
the  excellence  of  teachers  and  equipment  and  methods.  Her  organi- 
zation seems  as  good  and  as  comprehensive  as  can  be  desired.     Her 

252 


^T.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

territorial  advantages,  comprising  over  thirty  acres  of  land  in  the 
heart  of  that  great  city  whose  climate  and  advantages  of  residence 
are  superior  to  those  of  any  other  large  American  city,  indicate 
unerringly  the  future  pre-eminence  she  will  attain.  Never  until 
now  have  the  authorities  of  the  University  felt  called  upon  to  intro- 
duce the  dormitory  system.  But  with  the  larger  demands  of  the 
past  few  years  has  come  the  conviction  that  we  must  supply  halls 
of  residence,  constructed  upon  the  most  approved  plans,  as  an  addi- 
tion to  the  extensive  system  of  private  boarding-houses  which  now 
accommodate  the  students  of  the  University.  The  first  of  these 
dormitories  will  be  built  the  coming  year.  It  will  be  constructed  by 
University  funds,  but  the  investment  will  be  a  good  one.  A  recent 
canvass  of  the  various  departments  discloses  the  fact  that  fully  fifty 
per  cent,  of  all  the  students  would  prefer  residence  in  such  college 
halls,  and  it  is  clear  that  the  construction  of  the  first  will  be  fol- 
lowed speedily  by  the  demand  for  others,  and  that  here  will  be  a 
field  where  the  activity  of  our  graduates  and  the  liberality  of  our 
benefactors  may  well  display  itself  in  the  years  to  come. 

"  No  better  illustration  can  be  given  of  the  way  in  which  are  sup- 
plied the  needs  of  a  great  educational  institution  which  is  doing  its 
full  duty  than  the  present  movement  for  establishing  a  great  library 
in  connection  with  the  University.  The  gifts  to  our  library  during 
the  past  few  years  have  been  wholly  unprecedented  in  their  extent 
and  value,  so  that  it  had  become  imperatively  necessary  to  provide  a 
spacious  fire-proof  building  for  its  accommodation,  in  order  that  it 
might  be  accessible  not  only  to  the  students  of  the  University  but 
to  the  entire  community.  No  sooner  was  it  known  that  we  would 
undertake  to  supply  this  great  need  of  the  public  and  the  University 
than  large  subscriptions  were  made  by  many  liberal  persons,  and 
within  a  few  weeks  no  less  than  1^140,000  has  been  secured, 
with  the  sure  prospect  of  getting  all  that  is  required,  which  is  fully 
;^200,ooo  more.  With  this  fund  we  shall  erect  a  library  building 
on  the  most  approved  plans,  with  a  capacity  of  not  less  than  500,000 
volumes,  and  shall  conduct  it  as  a  library  of  reference,  free  for  the 

253 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

entire  community.  For  it  is  characteristic  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  that  her  work  is  not  merely  the  instruction  of  a  lim- 
ited number  of  students,  however  considerable  ;  not  the  affording 
opportunities  of  advanced  study  and  original  investigation  to  distin- 
guished scholars ;  but  the  larger  task  of  elevating  the  entire  educa- 
tional system  and  inspiring  the  intellectual  life  of  a  vast  community. 
An  organic  bond  has  been  made  between  the  University  and  the 
public  school  system  of  Philadelphia  by  the  permanent  establish- 
ment of  fifty  prize  scholarships,  which  are  open  to  all  deserving 
students  of  these  schools. 

"  The  methods  and  standard  of  the  University  will  exert  a  con- 
trolling influence  over  those  of  the  High  School  and  the  Grammar 
Schools,  and  there  is  not  a  child  of  that  great  city,  however  lowly  in 
birth,  to  whom  is  not  open  freely,  as  the  reward  of  faithful  work, 
the  path  from  the  Kindergarten  to  the  highest  honors  of  the  Uni- 
versity. Such  is  the  ideal  of  the  American  University  ;  such  the 
position  and  organization  which  assure  us  that  as  '  now  we  see 
what  after  ages  shall,'  we  see  that  she  is  destined  to  become  one  of 
the  great,  eminent,  and  overshadowing  institutions  of  the  world. 

"  You  ask  me  the  great  needs  of  the  University  and  I  have  told 
you  :  fellowships,  dormitories,  a  great  library.  One  more  and  the 
most  important  is  to  be  named,  the  growing  and  ever-growing  zeal 
and  devotion  of  the  Alumni.  Beside  the  precious  aid  they  can  ren- 
der by  indirect  and  impalpable  means  there  is  one  urgent  practical 
work  to  which  they  should  address  themselves.  There  is  needed  a 
great  Memorial  Alumni  Hall,  built  on  the  lands  of  our  Alma  Mater, 
by  the  loving  hands  of  her  own  children.  The  ground  for  this 
building  will  cheerfully  be  appropriated  by  the  Trustees.  A  most 
auspicious  opportunity  presents  itself  to  erect  it  in  conjunction  and 
in  architectural  harmony  with  the  library  building.  The  plans  under 
consideration  for  the  building  and  for  securing  the  co-operation  of 
Alumni  will  be  fully  explained  to  you.  In  such  a  hall  would  our 
most  cherished  associations  centre  ;  there  would  all  important  Uni- 
versity ceremonies  occur,  and  thither  year  after  year  would  our  steps 

254 


^T.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

turn  to  meet  the  friends  of  our  youth,  to  renew  the  happy  days,  to 
replenish  the  ever-burning  lamp  of  love  and  zeal  for  Alma  Mater.  In 
such  work  who  of  us  will  not  gladly  take  a  part,  and  the  united  gifts 
of  our  loving  Alumni  will  successfully  rear  a  hall  of  our  own  that 
will  attest  imperishably  that  zeal  and  that  love.  Time  presses  and  the 
work  should  be  accomplished  without  delay,  for  it  has  been  decided 
that  in  1 891,  which  is  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  restoration 
to  the  University  of  her  charter  and  estates,  there  shall  be  a  celebration 
worthy  of  the  occasion,  and  when  representatives  of  learned  institu- 
tions in  all  parts  of  the  world  visit  our  Alma  Mater  it  were  usually 
well  that  they  not  find  wanting  such  proof  of  our  filial  devotion." 

A  few  days  later  he  received  an  invitation  from  Dr. 
Stewart,  of  Erie,  an  old  Alumnus  of  the  University : 

"1848.  1888. 

"  Dr.  J.  L.  Stewart  requests  the  pleasure  of  your  presence  at  a 
dinner  tendered  to  him  by  the  members  of  the  Erie  County  Medi- 
cal Society,  to  be  given  at  the  Reed  House,  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  upon 
the  evening  of  March  13,  at  8  p.m.,  it  being  the  occasion  of  the 
Fortieth  Anniversary  of  his  entry  upon  the  practice  of  medicine." 

This  was  accompanied  by  the  following  letter : 

"Erie,  February  28,  '88. 

"  If  you  can  possibly  spare  the  time  from  your  many  and  pressing 
duties  to  write  a  letter  to  be  used  at  the  dinner  on  the  13th,  I  would 
esteem  it  a  great  favor. 

"  In  addition  to  the  members  of  our  Society  there  will  be  a  num- 
ber of  physicians  present  from  the  adjoining  counties  of  New  York 
and  Ohio. 

"  With  considerations  of  respect  and  esteem,  I  am, 

"  Fraternally  yours, 

"  J.  L.  Stewart. 

"  P.  S. — You  know  that  I  am  a  graduate  of  the  good  old  Uni- 
versity." ^ 

'  MS. 

255 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

Dr.  Pepper's  answer  well  illustrates  his  habit  of  utilizing 
every  opportunity  to  extend  the  influence  of  the  University : 

"Philadelphia,  March  7,  1888. 

"  My  dear  Dr.  Stewart, — 

"  I  have  received  an  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  banquet  ten- 
dered you  by  the  members  of  the  Erie  County  Medical  Society  on 
the  fortieth  anniversary  of  your  entrance  into  the  medical  profession. 
It  would  be  peculiarly  agreeable  to  accept  this  courteous  invitation, 
but  circumstances  beyond  my  control  forbid  it. 

"  I  should  value  highly  the  opportunity  of  meeting  my  profes- 
sional brethren  who  tender  this  banquet,  and  of  uniting  with  them 
in  doing  honor  to  one  whose  long  professional  career  has  been  so 
useful  and  so  honorable.  I  should  be  no  less  glad  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  testifying  to  the  good  work  done  by  the  medical  men  of 
your  great  county,  and  of  the  adjoining  counties  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York,  in  contributing  to  medical  science,  in  supporting  a 
high  tone  of  professional  feeling  and  conduct,  and  in  encouraging 
and  favoring  the  maintenance  of  the  highest  standard  of  medical 
education. 

"  I  should  like  to  do  this  personally,  and  I  would  feel  added 
gratification  if  I  might  then  venture  to  speak  as  representing  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  whose  medical  diploma  you  received 
just  forty  years  ago.  I  should  then  remind  you  of  the  illustrious 
career  of  that  venerable  institution  for  well  nigh  a  century  and  a 
half;  of  her  growth  in  resources  and  fame;  of  the  great  men  who 
have  at  all  times  been  found  in  her  faculties ;  and  of  her  present 
condition  of  unprecedented  prosperity. 

"  And  to  what  influences,  would  I  ask,  are  such  gratifying  results 
to  be  traced  ?  Chiefly,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  noble  lives  of  her 
graduates  and  of  their  loyal  devotion  to  their  Alma  Mater.  They 
have  carried  with  them  to  all  parts  of  the  world  the  lessons  there 
learned,  not  only  in  medical  science,  but  in  medical  ethics  and  in 
medical  enthusiasm ;  and  they  have  returned  dutifully  the  benefits 

256 


JEt.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

they  received  by  an  unswerving  support  of  all  her  measures  for  the 
advancement  of  medical  education  and  of  all  the  highest  profes- 
sional interests.  Need  I  say  that  this  occasion  derives  not  a  little 
of  its  dignity  and  significance  from  the  fact  that  you,  the  chief 
guest,  are  notably  one  vi^ho,  ever  since  his  graduation  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  has  through  a  long  career  illustrated  the 
truth  of  all  I  have  just  said. 

"  And  again,  it  w'xW  be  conceded  that  the  position  of  the  Medi- 
cal Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  is  largely  due  to 
the  disinterested  and  public-spirited  tone  of  its  administration  from 
its  early  days, — a  tone  which  I  am  proud  to  say  is  as  conspicuous 
now  as  ever, 

"  The  fame  and  privileges  which  such  institutions  enjoy  impose 
upon  all  who  share  them,  whether  trustees,  teachers,  or  graduates, 
weighty  obligations.  They  owe  to  it  allegiance  ;  they  owe  to  it 
generous  support ;  they  owe  to  it  the  example  of  their  own 
lives. 

"  Much  has  been  accomplished  for  the  elevation  of  our  noble 
and  beloved  profession.  Yet  much  more  remains  to  be  done.  It 
can  be  achieved  only  by  united  action  and  by  harmonious  organi- 
zation. May  the  fraternal  feelings  aroused  by  such  happy  occa- 
sions as  this  long  remain  with  us  to  inspire  to  renewed  zeal  in  the 
support  of  all  that  conduces  to  the  welfare  of  the  brotherhood,  and 
to  the  promotion  of  truth  and  knowledge. 

"  I  beg  you  to  believe  me,  with  the  most  cordial  wishes  for  your 
continued  health  and  happiness, 

"  Yours  fraternally, 

"  William  Pepper." 

On  the  twenty-fourth  of  April  occurred  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew's  entrance  into  the  medical 
profession  and  the  close  of  his  half-century  of  medical  teach- 
ing in  the  University.  The  unique  occasion  was  fittingly 
observed  by  the  Alumni  of  the  University,  many  of  whom, 
17  257 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

like  Dr.  Pepper,  had  studied  under  Agnew.     Dr.  Pepper's 
remarks  on  this  occasion  were  exceedingly  happy. 

"  It  is  fitting  that  this  imposing  celebration  should  occur  here 
within  the  walls  of  the  University,  because  it  has  been  in  the 
service  of  the  University  that  many  of  the  great  qualities  of  our 
distinguished  and  beloved  guest  have  been  most  conspicuously  dis- 
played, and  because  I  know  he  feels  happiest  when  thus  surrounded 
by  his  own  brethren,  who  share  with  him  to  the  full  his  devotion  to 
Alma  Mater.  It  might  seem  out  of  place  were  I  to  dwell  at  length 
on  the  technical  features  of  Dr.  Agnew's  surgical  career.  Some 
thoughts  there  are,  however,  which  force  themselves  on  the  mind 
of  any  clinician  in  regarding  that  stretch  of  fifty  years'  continuous 
labor  in  one  of  the  most  important  and  progressive  fields  of  human 
industry.  One  cannot  but  recognize  in  this  work  a  breadth  and 
comprehensiveness  almost  unique.  If  we  must  admit  specialism 
as  the  inevitable  result,  just  as  it  is  in  large  measure  the  determining 
cause,  of  the  progress  and  precision  of  medical  science,  still  we 
shall  not  dispute  the  pre-eminence  of  those  rare  natures  whose 
wider  range  embraces  many  special  fields,  and  by  enabling  them  to 
see  truth  from  many  sides  imparts  to  their  judgment  a  philosophic 
breadth  and  perspective.  When  I  recall  the  basis  of  profound 
anatomical  study  on  which  Dr.  Agnew's  work  has  been  built  up  ; 
the  patient  pursuit  of  pathology  with  microscope  as  well  as  scalpel, 
in  days  when  histology  was  a  rare  acquirement ;  the  successful 
career  at  Wills  Hospital,  which  made  him  famous  among  the  early 
ophthalmologists  ;  the  brilliancy  of  his  work  as  a  pioneer  in  the 
field  of  gynaecology ;  his  deserved  eminence  as  an  authority  in 
genito-urinary  diseases  ;  it  is  evident  that  here  has  been  one  of 
those  exceptional  careers,  ever  progressing,  assimilating,  developing, 
until  there  is  attained  that  combination  of  immense  experience,  of 
infinite  expedient,  and  of  calm,  chastened  judgment  which  com- 
mands the  confidence  of  the  entire  profession,  and  upon  which  a 
nation  rested  with  implicit  faith  through  weary  weeks  of  agonized 
waiting. 

258 


JEt.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  Again  it  may  be  noted  that  not  the  least  remarkable  feature  in 
such  a  career  is  the  happy  blending  of  conservatism  with  progress. 
Too  often  do  years  and  success  convert  the  conservative  into  the 
fossil ;  too  rarely  do  they  bring  balance  and  moderation  to  the  radi- 
cal. How^  admirable,  then,  is  that  still  rarer  spectacle  of  mature 
wisdom  joined  with  the  intellectual  activity  and  assimilative  power 
of  youth.  It  seems  to  me  a  fine  thing  for  a  man  at  the  close  of 
fifty  years  of  teaching  and  practice  to  be  in  close  touch  with  the 
latest  procedure,  even  in  regard  to  such  complicated  problems  as 
those  of  abdominal  and  cerebral  surgery.  But  it  is  a  more  valu- 
able lesson  to  see  one  of  the  highest  authorities  on  all  points  of 
practical  surgery,  at  the  age  of  well  nigh  threescore  and  ten  years, 
seize  upon  the  earliest  announcement,  subject  to  immediate  search- 
ing trial,  and,  upon  convincing  evidence,  adopt  finally  such  new 
and  epoch-making  teachings  as  those  of  Lister.  It  seems  to  me 
among  the  crowning  distinctions  of  Dr.  Agnew's  career  that  he  so 
promptly  threw  the  weight  of  his  great  authority  in  America  on 
the  side  of  thorough  antisepsis.  But  I  may  not  venture  to  dwell 
longer  on  matters  so  technical.  That  to  which  I  can  more  fitly 
allude  is  the  portion  of  his  career  which  concerns  medical  education, 
especially  in  connection  with  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  It 
were  superfluous  to  state  here  what  Dr.  Agnew  has  been  in  his  per- 
sonal relations  with  the  thousands  of  physicians  who  have  trusted 
him  and  depended  on  his  counsel  in  the  gravest  professional  anx- 
ieties. It  were  equally  needless  to  express — for  do  not  nearly  all 
here  know  well  from  experience — what  he  has  been  as  teacher 
and  friend  to  the  even  larger  number  who  have  learned  their  anat- 
omy and  their  surgery  from  his  lips  and  hands.  Simple  and  unaf- 
fected, yet  always  clear  and  forcible,  his  lectures  seemed  to  me 
models  both  for  manner  and  matter,  admirably  adapted  to  convey 
instruction,  to  awaken  thought,  to  impress  upon  his  hearers  the 
dignity  and  importance  of  the  study.  And  in  his  clinical  teaching 
what  a  happy  blending  of  calm  science  and  benign  humanity  !  No 
matter  how  critical  the  emergency,  you  felt  that  his  courage  and  the 

259 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

resources  of  his  skill  were  equal  to  it ;  no  matter  how  free  from 
danger  the  operation,  you  never  failed  to  recognize  in  touch  and 
manner  that  sacred  sympathy  with  suffering,  the  absence  of  which 
may  degrade  the  highest  skill  almost  to  brutality. 

"  No  one  ever  studied  under  Dr.  Agnew  without  feeling  that  in 
him  he  had  found  a  true  friend.  Even  the  terrors  of  final  exami- 
nation were  finally  dispelled  by  the  assurance  of  his  indulgent 
though  just  judgment.  No  graduate  ever  left  the  University 
without  carrying  with  him,  graven  on  the  tablets  of  his  mem- 
ory, the  character  and  conduct  of  Dr.  Agnew,  so  that  his  figure 
should  remain  high  among  the  heroes  of  his  worship  and  of  his 
emulation.  No  estimate  can  place  too  high  the  value  and  the 
far-reaching  power  of  such  an  influence  as  this.  It  has  helped 
thousands  to  become  not  only  good  surgeons,  but  good  honorable 
men. 

"  Nor  have  Dr.  Agnew's  services  to  medical  education  and  to 
the  University  been  limited  to  his  personal  teachings  and  personal 
example.  In  all  the  long  series  of  deliberations  and  practical 
changes,  extending  over  fifteen  years  down  to  this  very  day,  which 
have  resulted  in  making  the  University  universally  recognized  as 
more  than  ever  the  leading  medical  school  of  the  continent,  the  best 
exponent  of  thorough  scientific  and  practical  teaching  and  training, 
he  has  been  the  consistent  supporter  of  reform  and  progress,  and  has 
borne  his  full  share  in  every  measure  adopted.  It  is  not  strange, 
then,  that  at  this  anniversary  time  the  University  should,  as  has 
to-day  been  ordered  by  the  Board  of  Trustees,  confer  upon  this 
her  honored  son  her  highest  academic  title.  It  is  not  strange  that 
we — some  his  pupils,  some  his  colleagues,  all  his  loving  friends  and 
brethren — should  throng  these  halls,  and  lend  our  voices  to  the 
swelling  chorus  of  heartfelt  admiration  for  what  he  has  done  and 
for  what  he  has  been.  Gladly  would  I  linger  on  this  theme,  but 
my  function  here  to-night  is  only  to  introduce,  in  a  few  words,  one 
who  may  fitly  speak  more  fully,  since  in  name  and  official  station, 
and  by  his  own  eminent  repute,  he  truly  represents  him  who  in 

260 


JEt.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

his  day  was,  as  is  Agnew  now,  the  acknowledged  head  and  leader 
of  the  surgical  profession  in  America."  ^ 

In  June  he  delivered  an  address  before  the  graduating  class 
at  Ogontz,  on  "  The  Higher  Education  of  Women,"  a  sub- 
ject to  which  he  had  referred,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  his 
inaugural  address  as  Provost.  The  subject  had  long  engaged 
his  thoughts  and  awakened  his  sympathies.  In  his  last 
report  as  Provost  he  had  announced  that  the  Doctorate 
degree  was  open  to  women  on  the  same  terms  as  to  men 
in  the  University,  but  as  yet,  excepting  in  the  Biological 
School,  women  were  not  admitted  to  undergraduate  study. 

"  Many  times  when  I  have  looked  at  a  class  of  young  men 
about  graduating  and  entering  their  professions,  I  have  felt  that 
thorough  education  and  thorough  womanhood  are  not  incompatible 
attainments ;  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  strong  grounds 
for  believing  that  the  higher  education  can  be  pursued  by  girls, 
under  suitable  conditions,  not  only  with  safety,  but  with  advantage 
to  their  physical  development.  As  a  physician,  I  am  of  course 
well  aware  of  the  injurious  effects  on  girls  of  excessive  study, 
pursued  under  the  unfavorable  conditions  which  have  usually  ob- 
tained in  their  schools.  I  have  seen  many  sad  illustrations  of  it. 
If  such  conditions  were  to  continue,  I  could  sympathize  with  the 
exclamation  of  Sir  B.  Brodie,  who  said  he  never  saw  a  girl  with  a 
school-book  in  her  hand  without  feeling  a  desire  to  throw  it  at  her 
head. 

"  Consider  these  conditions  as  they  have  existed  for  the  most  part 
until  recently.  Unquestionably  many  of  the  most  forcible  argu- 
ments as  to  the  effect  of  higher  education  on  girls  have  been  drawn 


^University  of  Pennsylvania,  April  24,  1888:  Remarks  made 
on  the  Occasion  of  the  Alumni  Testimonial  to  Dr.  D.  Hayes 
Agnew,  by  Dr.  William  Pepper,  Provost  of  the  University. 

261 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

from  the  Normal  schools.  In  the  last  report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  there  were  in  our  Normal  schools  16,106  female 
and  6,894  male  students.  I  think  I  can  assert  without  fear  of 
contradiction  that  most  of  the  buildings  occupied  as  Normal  schools 
are  defective  hygienically  ;  that  the  provisions  for  physical  culture  are 
wretchedly  inadequate ;  that  the  educational  method  is  often  one  of 
hasty,  ruinous  cramming,  and  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  students 
come  to  these  schools  from  grammar  schools  where  the  conditions 
have  been  equally  prejudicial.  It  seems  absurd  to  lay  to  the  charge 
of  hard  study  alone  the  ill-health  which  often  develops  in  these 
students,  and  to  fail  to  take  into  account  the  hereditary  tenden- 
cies, the  home  surroundings,  the  depressing  conditions,  the  utter 
absence  of  healthy,  invigorating  recreation  and  excercise  out  of 
school.  Have  you  followed  any  large  number  of  girls,  drawn  from 
the  same  class  of  society,  into  occupations  which  do  not  tax  the 
brain  by  study — into  the  shops,  the  mills,  the  factories — where,  as 
a  rule,  the  neglect  of  hygienic  rules  is  no  less  striking  ?  The 
ill-health  may  there  assume  other  forms,  but  ill-health  and  stunted 
development  there  are  in  sad,  sad  plenty. 

"  Many,  if  not  most,  of  the  denunciations  of  the  ill  effects  of 
the  higher  education  of  women  have  come  from  medical  specialists 
whose  opportunities  of  observation  have  been  chiefly  among  women. 
Had  they  seen,  as  I  have  seen,  the  bad  results  of  high-pressure 
education  of  boys  under  unfavorable  hygienic  conditions,  they 
would  have  been  willing  to  denounce  the  latter.  But  it  is  a  notable 
fact  that  for  years  past  the  attention  of  educators  and  of  public 
benefactors  has  been  directed  to  improving  the  conditions  under 
which  boys  and  young  men  get  educated  in  this  country ;  and  the 
result,  as  contrasted  with  the  small  amount  given  to  promote  the 
education  of  women,  may  be  briefly  summed  up  in  the  statement 
that  of  the  benefactions  to  the  cause  of  higher  education  during  the 
last  year  in  America,  for  which  data  are  accessible,  only  four  per 
cent,  went  to  institutions  for  women,  and  of  these  four  per  cent, 
five-sixths  went  to  five  colleges.     We  have  a  right  to  ask,  at  least, 

262 


^T.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

that  judgment  shall  be  suspended  until  for  girls  who  are  pursuing 
a  higher  education  there  are  provided  facilities  as  adequate  as  those 
which  have  been  created  for  young  men. 

"  The  case  merely  needs  a  varied  statement,  and  is  not  really 
different,  when  we  consider  the  position  of  girls  whose  parents  are 
rich  enough  to  pay  for  protracted  and  thorough  education.  Con- 
sider the  average  school-house  :  badly  lighted,  worse  ventilated,  not 
at  all  adapted  for  its  purpose ;  without  playground,  and  with,  at 
most,  an  apology  for  a  gymnasium.  Consider  the  curriculum,  and 
the  attempt  to  crowd  into  a  few  years  many  and  difficult  studies. 
Then  the  added  tax  of  weariness  and  confinement  imposed  by 
music  and  dancing.  Add  to  this  the  frequent  late  hours  and  the 
precocious  party,  and  tell  me  how  far  it  is  fair  to  attribute  to  educa- 
tion the  ill-health  which  is  rather  due  to  errors  in  diet,  in  dress,  in 
exercise,  or  in  any  of  the  essentials  of  hygiene.  Education  is  certainly 
not  to  be  blamed,  for  true  education  cannot  exist  under  such  condi- 
tions. Stupid  over-instruction,  with  more  stupid  neglect  of  hygiene 
and  physical  culture,  may  indeed  be  held  responsible  for  the  mischief. 

"  Nothing  is  education  which  does  not  evoke  the  best  powers  of 
the  whole  nature.  We  have  had  to  wait  for  centuries  before  the 
education  of  our  boys  and  young  men  could  escape  from  the  tram- 
mels of  monasticism  and  be  modelled  anew  on  the  larger  and  freer 
types  of  ancient  Greece.  A  few  years  cannot  suffice  to  evolve  the 
result ;  but  already  the  whole  physical  condition  of  our  college 
students  has  undergone  a  salutary  change.  Higher  education  is 
found  compatible  with  higher  physical  development  and  vigor ;  and 
the  teacher,  the  preacher,  the  professional  man  of  the  future,  will  be 
as  careful  of  his  body  as  of  his  mind,  and  will  recognize  that  the 
latter  serves  him  best  when  the  former  is  best  cared  for.  It  has 
been  my  business  for  many  years  to  watch  the  health  and  physical 
development  of  successive  crops  of  young  men  ;  and  he  must  be 
unobservant,  indeed,  who  has  not  noted,  as  I  have  done,  the  steadily- 
rising  average  of  physical  condition  coincident  with  a  steadily-rising 
standard  of  scholarship. 
1  263 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

"  Doubtless  the  best  education  for  a  girl  differs  in  some  im- 
portant particulars  from  the  best  adapted  to  the  other  sex.  These 
are,  however,  mere  matters  of  detail.  The  fundamental  position  to 
which  I  adhere  is  simply  this  :  That  we  have  as  yet  no  sufficient 
evidence  to  show  that  when  girls  have  carefully-arranged  higher 
education  provided  for  them,  under  the  proper  hygienic  conditions, 
and  with  a  curriculum  of  adequate  length,  it  will  be  found  incom- 
patible with  the  simultaneous  development  of  the  best  physical 
health,  and  with  their  subsequent  perfect  womanhood. 

"  Evidently  all  this,  if  it  be  shown  to  be  true,  as  I  am  absolutely 
confident  it  will  be,  still  lacks  the  addition  of  a  motive  which  shall 
lead  girls  to  desire  the  higher  education  and  shall  lead  parents  to 
willingly  pay  for  it.  It  might  content  us  to  observe  that  whatever 
is  truly  best  for  the  individual — whatever  tends  to  elevate  the  char- 
acter, and  to  evoke  the  full  powers,  and  to  complete  the  nature — 
must  be  good  for  the  race ;  and  that  the  race  which  can  reckon  the 
largest  number  of  individuals  so  trained  and  developed  will  stand 
the  best  chance  of  producing  those  great  men  and  women  who,  by 
their  gifts  and  their  achievements,  mark  the  advance  of  humanity  ; 
and  will  also  stand  the  best  chance  of  raising  the  general  average  of 
manhood  and  of  womanhood.  And  it  must  be  added  that  with 
such  education  of  mind  and  body  will  come  a  greater  capacity  for 
a  greater  chance  of  acquiring  happiness.  The  course  I  would 
commend  would  occupy  a  girl  up  to  the  age  of  twenty  or  twenty- 
one,  and  would  keep  her  out  of  society  until  that  time.  A  more 
desirable  result  I  cannot  conceive.  The  amount  of  ill-health  and 
unhappiness  which  comes  from  the  precocious  and  excessive  excite- 
ment of  exertion  connected  with  such  lives  as  our  young  girls  in 
society  now  lead  is  tenfold  greater  than  all  which  can  be  charged 
against  over-education.  When  thoughtful  parents  come  to  under- 
stand this,  they  will  gladly  bear  the  added  expense  of  the  longer  and 
thorough  tuition.  When  sensible  girls  come  to  understand  it,  they 
will  establish  the  habit,  or  set  the  fashion,  and  it  will  soon  become 
the  thing  to  do.     For  they  will  see  that  not  only  are  the  women 

264 


JEt.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

who  are  highly  educated  under  these  better  conditions  healthier  and 
happier,  because  they  have  infinite  resources  and  objects  of  active 
interest ;  but  they  will  see  that  a  reasonable  delay  in  entrance  on 
social  life,  and  a  more  mature  development  of  character,  will  render 
them  more  attractive  and  companionable  to  the  best  men,  and  will 
lessen  the  risk  of  ill-assorted  marriages. 

"  And  further,  there  are  not  wanting  increasing  and  splendid 
proofs  that  as  this  truth  that  higher  education  rightly  pursued  is  as 
good  for  the  woman  as  for  the  man  becomes  more  generally  recog- 
nized the  stream  of  benefactions  will  flow  in  this  channel  also,  and 
we  shall  have  ever  enlarging  and  widening  facilities  of  education 
provided  for  her  as  well  as  for  him. 

"  I  am  aware  that  I  have  not  alluded  to  what  is  the  most  obvious 
and  practical  purpose  of  this  advanced  education  in  many  instances 
at  present.  This  is  to  fit  the  student  for  some  profitable  occupa- 
tion which  may  enable  her  to  earn  her  living,  and  thus  support 
herself  in  independence.  It  were  idle  to  speculate  on  the  ultimate 
result  of  the  constantly  increasing  share  taken  by  American  women 
in  practical  life.  It  does  not  concern  us  of  this  generation  that  at 
some  distant  day  the  franchise  may  be  extended  to  them.  This 
question  cannot  now  be  regarded  as  a  practical  one ;  though  one  is 
often  tempted  to  wish  that  this  sovereign  right  might  be  taken  from 
the  illiterate  and  the  irresponsible  and  be  enjoyed  only  on  property 
and  educational  basis  by  both  sexes  alike. 

"  Nor  does  it  concern  us  that  at  some  distant  day,  when  this 
continent  is  densely  peopled,  the  struggle  for  existence  may  be  all 
the  more  keen  and  severe  because  our  women  have  been  trained, 
as  far  as  may  prove  possible,  to  be  the  intellectual  peers  of  men. 
New  social  conditions  and  needs  will,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  bring  with 
them  solutions  consistent  with  morality  and  human  happiness.  The 
immediate  concern  of  the  moment  is  that,  as  every  year  new  fields 
of  activity  are  being  opened  to  our  women,  and  as  the  interests 
of  the  community  apparently  demand  the  services  of  a  constantly 
enlarging  number  of  well  trained  and  highly  educated  women,  we 

265 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

shall  throw  our  influence  strongly  in  favor  of  the  largest  extension 
of  educational  facilities  to  them  consistent  with  vested  rights,  I 
believe  that  this  may  be  done  for  all  classes  of  women  alike,  just 
as  it  is  for  all  classes  of  men ;  as  well  as  for  those  who  desire  the 
higher  education  solely  for  the  elevation  and  distinction  it  will  con- 
fer on  them  as  for  those  who  seek  it  for  a  more  practical  purpose, 
not  only  without  danger  to  the  future  vigor  of  our  race,  but  with 
incalculable  advantage  to  the  intellectual  and  physical  qualities  of 
our  descendants."  ^ 

The  College  Association  of  the  Middle  States  and  Mary- 
land held  its  annual  convention  at  the  University  in  July. 
Of  this  Association  Dr.  Pepper  was  the  president,  to  which 
office  he  was  at  this  meeting  re-elected.  He  had  originated 
the  Association.  At  first  it  consisted  only  of  a  few  men 
from  the  colleges  in  Pennsylvania ;  but  his  purpose  was 
more  comprehensive  than  the  formation  of  a  local  educa- 
tional circle.  He  recognized  the  unity  of  the  Middle  States 
as  an  educational  community,  and  at  this  meeting  of  the 
Association  effected  its  reorganization  under  a  new  name. 
His  address  was  a  review  of  the  progress  which  had  been 
made  in  the  plan  of  uniformity  in  college  preparation  through- 
out the  country  which  he  had  formerly  advocated.  He  re- 
newed his  plea  for  more  thorough  preparation  and  closer 
association  than  had  hitherto  existed  between  the  institutions 
in  the  Middle  States  which  conferred  degrees. 

As  Provost  of  the  largest  University  in  the  Middle  States 
he  could  with  eminent  propriety  express  his  appreciation  of 
the  work  which  the  smaller  colleges  were  doing.     There  is 


*  Remarks  on  the  Higher  Education  of  Women.  Delivered  at 
Ogontz,  June,  1888  :  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Provost  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania.      Pamphlet,  8  pp. 

266 


^T.  44]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

ample  evidence  that  at  first  some  of  the  presidents  of  these 
colleges  viewed  with  alarm  his  energetic  administration  of 
the  University.  They  seemed  to  feel  that  he  was  striking 
them  a  deadly  blow ;  but  theirs  was  the  ideal  of  the  college 
while  his  was  the  ideal  of  the  University.  He  desired  to 
remove  all  chances  of  friction  by  making  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  a  true  university,  thus  attracting  the  graduates 
of  the  smaller  colleges.  The  College  Department  of  the 
University  had  to  be  maintained  for  obvious  reasons,  and  he 
would  have  it  as  completely  organized  as  possible ;  but  his 
energies  were  directed,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  towards  the 
development  of  the  University.  He  would  have  it  become 
the  scholastic  home  of  all  the  youth  of  the  Middle  States 
who  were  seeking  graduate  instruction.  Incidental  to  his 
plan  was  the  elevation  of  the  standard  of  preparation  for 
college.  Thus  he  began  at  the  bottom  with  the  fitting 
schools. 

The  standard  of  admission  should  be  uniform  among  the 
Middle  State  colleges,  and  thus  enable  the  head-masters  of 
the  fitting  schools  to  know  exactly  what  would  be  required 
of  their  students.  The  scheme  was  a  large  one,  and  involved 
the  management  of  some  discordant  elements.  It  was  to 
promote  harmony  and  effectiveness  among  all  the  educational 
institutions  of  the  Middle  States  that  the  College  Association 
had  been  organized  by  Dr.  Pepper,  and  now  at  its  annual 
meeting  he  emphasized  the  essentials  of  harmony  and  effect- 
iveness :  adequate,  uniform  preparation  for  colleges  through- 
out the  region  represented  by  the  Association.  The  object 
for  which  he  labored  was  a  desirable  one,  but  it  made  demands 
of  an  exacting  nature.  As  long  as  Dr.  Pepper  remained 
Provost  of  the  University  the  Association  was  likely  to  be 
continued  and  the  purpose  of  its  formation  furthered,  but 

267 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

many  who  belonged  to  it  could  not  refrain  from  inquiring 
how  the  retirement  or  death  of  Dr.  Pepper  would  affect  the 
organization.  It  was  one  of  those  questions  which  con- 
stantly arise  in  connection  with  the  labors  of  an  extraor- 
dinary man  in  any  field. 

Time  has  proved  the  value  of  his  efforts  to  secure  the  ob- 
jects for  which  the  Association  was  formed,  and  to-day  all  the 
educational  institutions  in  the  Middle  States  which  confer 
degrees  are  in  closer  and  friendlier  association,  the  standard 
of  scholarship  among  them  is  higher,  and  the  conditions  of 
admission  to  their  courses  more  reasonable  and  uniform 
because  of  his  efforts. 


268 


JEt.  45]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

V 

THE    UNIVERSITY 
1888-1890 

THE  administration  of  University  affairs  during  the 
two  years  closing  October  1,  1889,^  occupied  a 
period  of  "  great  interest  and  unprecedented  pros- 
perity." The  most  important  event  affecting  the  tuture  of 
the  institution  was  the  acquisition  of  ten  additional  acres 
of  land  to  the  University  property  in  West  Philadelphia, 
making  its  possession  very  nearly  forty  acres  and  a  half^ 
This  acquisition  means  more  than  it  might  at  first  suggest,  for 
it  secured  to  the  University  the  strip  of  land  which  lay  be- 
tween its  former  holding  and  that  portion  of  the  Blockley 
farm,  seventy-three  acres,  which  had  been  preserved  by  the 
city  to  be  improved  as  a  public  park.  The  acquisition  re- 
moved the  last  anxiety  of  the  Trustees  that  the  University 
might  lack  sufficient  ground  for  its  growth. 

In   1887  the  Library  Building  was  begun.     Dr.  Pepper's 


^  Report  of  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  for  the 
two  years  ending  October  i,  1889,  with  abstracts  from  the  Treas- 
urer's Annual  Report.     Printed  for  the  University,  1889,  ^7^  PP- 

2  It  formed  a  continuous  tract  "  protected  to  the  southwest  by 
Woodland  Avenue,  thence  it  follows  the  line  of  Woodland  Avenue 
for  two  thousand  feet  to  Walnut  and  Thirty-fourth  Streets,  and 
'thence  in  a  southeasterly  direction  it  extends  almost  to  the  river 
I  (Schuylkill),  where  it  is  protected  by  the  line  of  the  Pennsylvania 
:  Railroad."     Id.,  p.  6. 

269 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

efforts,  beginning  on  his  inauguration  day,  had  at  last  cul- 
minated in  the  construction  of  a  suitable  building.  "As 
always  happens,"  said  he,  "  the  clear  statement  and  recog- 
nition of  the  need  of  the  University  was  followed  by  a 
determined  effort  to  supply  it."  As  the  University  had  no 
free  funds  available  for  the  purpose,  a  committee  was  organ- 
ized, and  subscriptions  amounting  to  $220,000  had  already 
been  received,  of  which  $  1 80,000  were  for  construction  and 
$40,000  for  additions  to  the  endowment.  All  this  money 
was  secured  through  the  personal  efforts  of  the  Provost.  The 
well-known  architect,  Mr.  Frank  Furness,  planned  a  building 
of  nice  adaptation  to  its  ends.  It  provided  storage  capacity 
for  350,000  books,  but  the  book-stack  admitted  of  indefinite 
extension.  It  was  at  first  planned  that  the  building  should 
stand  at  the  comer  of  Thirty-sixth  Street  and  Woodland 
Avenue,  directly  opposite  the  Medical  School,  and  that  site 
was  conveyed  to  the  Trustees  by  City  Councils  in  1888  for 
the  purpose.^ 

One  of  the  conditions  in  the  ordinance  was  that  the  Trus- 
tees should  erect  and  maintain  a  fire-proof  library  building, 
and  provide  means  to  support  it  as  "  a  free  library  of  reference, 
open  to  the  entire  community."  Upon  further  consideration, 
and  owing  to  the  prospective  foundation  of  a  new  scientific 
institution  which  might  be  allied  with  the  University,  it  was 
decided  to  change  the  site  of  the  Library  to  the  College 
campus  on  Thirty-fourth  Street,  but  a  portion  of  the  campus 
was  still  by  law  a  part  of  Locust  Street.  Most  generously 
the  City  Councils  vacated  the  section  of  the  street  occupied 
by  the  College  campus,  and  thus  removed  the  last  obstacle 


^  See  the  Ordinance,  March   21,  1888,  in   Provost's  Report  for 

1894,  P-  57- 

270 


>s 


^T.  45]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

to  the  erection  of  the  Library  Building.^  The  corner-stone 
of  the  new  building  was  laid  on  the  15th  of  October,  1888, 
with  Masonic  rites,  by  the  officers  of  the  Right  Worshipful 
Grand  Lodge  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  of  Pennsylvania, 
many  of  the  officers  of  which  during  the  past  century  had 
held  positions  of  trust  and  influence  in  the  government  of 
the  University. 

'The  acquisition  of  the  final  site  for  the  Library  was  bit- 
terly opposed  in  the  city  by  a  small  but  vigorous  faction. 
Every  argument  was  exhausted  to  prejudice  Councils  against 
the  grant.  Even  ex-Provost  Stille  was  dragged  into  the  at- 
tacking column.  An  open  letter  written  by  him,  opposing 
the  grant,  was  published  in  a  local  paper.  To  Dr.  Pepper's 
invitation  to  be  present  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Library,  Dr.  Stille  nevertheless  replied  as  follows : 

"October  10,  1888. 

"  My  dear  Doctor  : 

"  I  need  hardly  say  that  I  have  great  pleasure  in  accepting  your 
invitation  to  be  present  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  new 
Library  Building  of  the  University  on  Monday  next. 

"  I  congratulate  you  most  sincerely  upon  the  result  of  your 
efforts  to  secure  the  erection  of  this  building.  When  I  remember 
what  the  Library  was  when  you  and  I  first  saw  it,  and  what  it  now 
promises  to  be  in  its  new  quarters,  I  must  say  that  the  success  of 
your  efforts  to  raise  the  money  to  erect  the  building  is  only  the  last, 
perhaps  the  strongest,  evidence  of  the  wonderful  energy  and  vigor 
which  have  characterized  your  administration  of  the  University. 
"  With  high  regards, 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

«C.  J.  Stille."  2 


'  Ordinance  approved  April  3,  1888.     Id.,  p.  58. 

2  MS. 

271 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1888 

Mr.  Joseph  Wharton,  founder  of  the  Wharton  School  of 
Finance  and  Economy,  had  made  a  generous  contribution  of 
$25,000  as  a  Hbrary  fund  for  the  school.  Not  less  encour- 
aging were  the  voluntary  exertions  of  members  of  the  Faculty 
in  the  acquisition  of  notable  collections.  Professor  John  G. 
R.  McElroy,  a  member  of  Dr.  Pepper's  class,  had  secured  the 
noted  philological  library  of  the  late  Professor  F.  A.  Pott,  of 
the  University  of  Halle,  consisting  of  about  four  thousand 
works ;  Professor  Morris  Jastrow  secured  a  fine  collection  of 
Arabic  books,  and  Professor  Francis  A.  Jackson  obtained 
the  Leutsch  Library  of  Classics. 

As  was  his  custom  on  all  occasions  when  accounting 
results  and  labor  done.  Dr.  Pepper  officially  recognized  the 
devoted  services  and  generous  contributions  which  these 
faithful  professors  had  made.^ 

The  University  Lecture  Association,  which  Dr.  Pepper  had 
inaugurated  some  years  before,  proved  highly  popular  and 
stimulating  to  the  intellectual  life  of  the  community,  and 
accomplished  the  purpose  which  he  had  designed, — to  bring 
the  University  and  the  community  into  closer  sympathy. 
During  1888  lectures  were  delivered,  among  others,  by  Dr. 
John  Fiske,  on  American  History ;  by  Herbert  Weir  Smyth, 

^  In  November,  1890,  Professor  McElroy  died,  after  a  brief  ill- 
ness. He  became  instructor  in  the  University  in  1867,  five  years 
after  his  graduation,  and  held  successively  the  posts  of  assistant 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  History,  adjunct  Professor  of  Greek  and 
History,  and  Professor  of  Rhetoric  of  the  English  Language,  which 
he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  a  painstaking  and  indus- 
trious teacher,  the  author  of  several  works  in  English  which  have 
become  standard  text-books,  and  commanded  the  hearty  respect  and 
affection  of  his  fellow-professors.  Dr.  Pepper's  Report,  October  i, 
1892,  pp.  2-3. 

272 


JEt.  45]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

on  Greek  Lyric  Poetry ;  and  by  M.  Coquelin,  on  the  French 
Drama.  In  1889  thirteen  series  were  dehvered,  and  among 
the  lecturers  were  Rev.  H.  C.  Trumbull,  on  Phases  of  Oriental 
Life ;  Professor  Francis  Brown,  on  Recent  Archaeology  and 
the  Religious  Idea  of  the  New  Testament ;  Mr.  Fiske,  on 
American  History ;  and  Horace  Howard  Furness,  LL.D., 
four  lectures  on  Shakespeare. 

University  Extension,  which  had  attained  such  remarkable 
proportions  in  Great  Britain,  interested  Dr.  Pepper,  and  he 
thought  of  its  aims  and  methods  in  connection  with  the  work 
of  the  University  Lecture  Association.  He  saw  in  the  exten- 
sion system  an  opportunity  for  co-operation  among  academic 
institutions,  an  ideal  towards  which  he  was  ever  moving,  and 
he  gave  notice  that  in  his  next  report  there  would  doubtless 
be  a  record  of  much  vigorous  and  successful  work  in  this 
new  field. 

The  acquisition  of  more  land  enabled  the  Board  to  extend 
an  offer — which  Dr.  Pepper  had  long  been  contemplating — 
to  several  institutions  in  the  city  to  acquire  new  sites  on  the 
University  ground  and  remove  there,  "  in  order  to  insure  con- 
centration and  co-ordination  of  energy  on  the  part  of  the 
students,  teachers,  and  investigators  in  kindred  branches." 
The  only  formal  offer  was  made  to  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences.  The  proposition  became  public  in  March,  1889, 
and  promised  for  a  time  to  be  realized.  The  ancient  and 
conservative  institution  to  which  the  offer  was  made  viewed 
it  with  some  alarm.  It  possessed  a  costly  building,  richly 
stored  with  collections,  and  the  more  conservative  members 
of  its  Board  of  Management  feared  that  removal  to  the  Uni- 
versity site  would  mean  the  ultimate  loss  of  the  identity  of 
the  Academy.     After  due  deliberation,  the  Academy  decided 

not  to  make  the  change. 

18  273 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1889 

"  Philadelphia,"  observed  one  of  the  city  papers  editorially,  in 
discussing  the  subject,^  "  for  a  great  many  years  has  been  suffering, 
in  connection  with  scientific,  artistic,  literary,  and  other  matters 
relating  to  culture,  from  a  lack  of  concentration  of  its  energies. 
There  is  plenty  of  culture  and  plenty  of  the  energy  of  culture,  if 
the  phrase  may  be  permitted,  in  this  town,  but  the  results  in  behalf 
of  true  culture  which  were  achieved  here  are  certainly  unimportant 
in  comparison  with  those  achieved  elsewhere  by  no  better  or  more 
intellectual  men  and  women  than  ours.  Up  to  within  a  very  recent 
period  the  University  was  run  by  a  little  clique  of  people,  who  were 
altogether  out  of  touch  with  the  rest  of  the  community. 

"  It  needs  no  argument,  we  think,  to  prove  that  if  the  worthy 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  with  its  very  valuable  collections  and 
appliances,  were  to  amalgamate  with  the  University  and  to  obtain 
for  its  students  the  benefits  of  the  University  collections  and  appli- 
ances, and  were  all  other  organizations  of  an  analogous  source  to 
join  in  with  the  University,  the  benefits  that  would  accrue  to  the 
cause  of  true  culture  would  be  enormous.  Of  all  the  institutions 
and  associations  that  have  been  mentioned  in  this  connection,  the 
University  is  the  only  one  that  is  pursuing  a  genuinely  prosperous 
and  progressive  career.  Since  the  University  has  been  in  West 
Philadelphia  quarters,  and  especially  since  Dr.  Pepper  has  been  the 
official  head  of  it,  it  has  steadily  risen  towards  a  first  place  among 
the  great  educational  institutions  of  the  country  and  of  the  world. 
It  has  done  and  is  doing  a  very  great  work,  and  it  is  accomplishing 
that  for  Philadelphia  which  entitles  it  to  the  cordial  regard  and  sup- 
port of  every  Philadelphian  who  is  at  all  capable  of  understanding 
what  the  word  culture  stands  for." 

The  Academy,  in  declining  to  unite  with  the  University, 
defeated  one  of  Dr.  Pepper's  long-cherished  plans  to  co- 
ordinate the  culture  force  of  the  city. 


*  The  Telegraphy  March  23,  1889. 
274 


JEt.  45]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  It  is  to  be  hoped,"  said  he,  "  that  a  continuance  of  this  liberal 
and  wise  policy  on  the  part  of  the  University  will  make  it  more 
and  more  clearly  recognized  as  the  intellectual  centre  of  this  great 
community,  around  which  will  naturally  group  themselves  the 
various  scientific  and  literary  institutions,  whose  work  is  an  essential 
part  of  the  comprehensive  University  scheme."  ^ 

For  some  time  Dr.  Pepper  had  been  interested  in  the  pro- 
motion of  archaeological  studies,  and  as  his  memoranda  of 
his  visit  to  the  Secretary  of  State  and  his  interview  with 
Minister  Straus  show,  he  had  been  devoted  to  the  Babylonian 
expedition  conducted  by  the  University  through  his  own 
generosity  and  that  of  others.  He  was  now  planning  a 
broader  organization  of  the  work,  and  had  suggested  the 
formation  of  an  Archaeological  Association,  whose  officers 
and  council  should  consist  in  part  of  members  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  University  and  in  part  of  members  of  the 
Association.  The  purpose  should  be  "  to  develop  a  great 
museum  comprising  paleontology,  ethnology,  and  archaeol- 
ogy."'^ As  there  was  no  special  receptacle  for  the  material 
which  these  expeditions  were  already  sending  to  the  Univer- 
sity, the  collections  were  displayed  in  part  of  the  new 
Library  Building.  "  As,"  said  he,  "  it  may  be  several  years 
before  the  necessity  for  a  great  museum  building  becomes 
urgent."  This  necessity  became  more  pressing  and  the 
years  proved  fewer  than  he  probably  at  this  time  anticipated 

By  a  change  in  the  administration  at  Washington,  the 
University  lost  the  official  aid  and  devotion  which  Minister 
Straus  had  given  it.  Dr.  Pepper  felt  this  loss  keenly,  and 
doubtless  reciprocated  the   sentiments  of  the  Secretary  of 

*  Provost's  Report,  1889,  pp.  9-1  o. 
^  Id.,  p.  10. 

275 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

State,  Honorable  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  who,  writing  under 
the  date  of  June  9,  observed  that  it  was  greatly  to  be  re- 
gretted that  Mr.  Straus  was  not  continued  in  his  place,  for 
which  he  had  exhibited  singular  aptitude,  having  achieved 
a  substantial  advantage  for  American  interests  in  Turkey 
quite  unprecedented.^  The  University  and  its  Archaeo- 
logical Association  could  do  no  more  than  file  useless  ex- 
ceptions to  a  practice  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in 
the  observance,  but  of  long  standing  in  America,  to  change 
our  ministers  and  consuls  with  every  change  of  administra- 
tion, without  regard  to  their  fitness  and  fidelity.  The  Prov- 
ost doubtless  further  agreed  with  Mr.  Bayard's  comment  on 
the  reason  for  the  change  as  "  a  poor  and  shallow  view." 

The  following  letter  from  Secretary  Bayard  also  indicates 
his  feelings  in  the  matter  and  the  efforts  of  the  University  to 
have  Mr.  Straus  retained : 

"  Department  of  State,  Washington,  February  19,  1889. 

"  Dear  Doctor  : 

"  I  reinclose  your  proposed  memorial  to  President  Harrison 
asking  the  retension  of  Mr.  Straus  in  the  Turkish  Mission. 

"  It  assuredly  will  be  a  good  thing  for  the  public  interest  that  he 
should  remain ;  but  I  cannot  hazard  an  opinion  whether  that  will 
weigh  in  the  question  or  no. 

"  Our  main  interests  in  Turkey  are  scientific  and  educational, 
with  no  possibility  of  our  domestic  politics  intruding.  The  form 
of  your  memorial  is  sufficiently  indicative ;  but  would  not  a  word 
from  the  Pennsylvania  Senators  be  better  ? 

"  Sincerely  yours, 
"  T.  F.  Bayard."  2 

*  MS.  letter  T.  F.  Bayard  to  Dr.  William  Pepper ;  Wilmington, 
Delaware,  June  9,  1889. 
'MS. 

276 


^T.  45]  THE   UNIVERSITY 

On  the  last  day  of  May,  1 888,  in  the  early  morning,  a  fire 
broke  out  in  the  fourth  story  of  the  Medical  Hall  and 
wrought  great  damage.  Dr.  Pepper's  residence  was  nearly 
two  miles  distant.  An  eye-witness  relates  that  the  fire-engines 
were  not  yet  in  position  and  fighting  the  flames  before  Dr. 
Pepper  was  seen  at  the  top  of  a  ladder  resting  against  the  ledge 
of  one  of  the  dormer  windows  out  of  which  thick  columns 
of  smoke  were  rolling.  He  seemed  to  have  sprung  up  out  of 
the  ground  at  the  moment  the  alarm  was  sounded ;  and  he 
remained,  taking  charge  of  matters  until  the  fire  was  extin- 
guished. It  was  said  at  the  time  that  as  he  was  always  felt 
to  be  constructively  present  in  every  activity  within  the 
University,  no  one  was  surprised  to  discover  him  present  at 
so  critical  a  moment.  "  Although  the  results  were  far  less 
serious  than  we  feared,"  was  his  reference  to  the  fire  in  his 
report  five  months  later,  "  and  both  the  condition  and  equip- 
ments are  far  better  now  than  prior  to  the  fire,  the  accident 
emphasizes  in  the  strongest  manner  the  importance  of  having 
every  building  in  which  valuable  collections  are  stored  of 
fire-proof  construction."^  The  damage  which  the  Wistar- 
Horner  Museum  and  the  Stille  Medical  Library  sustained 
proved  ultimately  a  blessing  in  disguise. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea  generously  offered 
to  erect  a  building  for  a  complete  School  of  Hygiene,  in 
accepting  which  the  Trustees  and  the  Medical  Faculty  delib- 
erately assumed  a  binding  condition,  that  as  soon  as  the 
stipulated  endowment  of  $200,000  for  this  new  department 
should  be  secured,  a  movement  should  be  started  to  raise  a 
fiirther  sum  of  $250,000  to  enable  the  Trustees  to  add  the 
obligatory  fourth  year  to  the  medical  curriculum.    Mr.  Lea's 


*  Provost's  Report,  1889,  p.  11. 

277 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

offer  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Medical  School. 
In  regard  to  the  Department  of  Hygiene,  Dr.  Pepper  left  this 
interesting  memorandum : 

"  Knowing  that  Mr.  Lea  was  greatly  interested  in  promoting 
the  study  of  hygiene,  for  which  purpose  he  had  offered  a  sum  of 
;^  1 0,000  to  the  University,  I  learned  that  Dr.  John  S.  Billings 
had  not  accepted  the  offer  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Hospital  to  be  its  Superintendent.  Within  twelve  hours  I  was  in 
his  office  and  secured  a  written  contract  with  him  that  he  would 
accept  the  position  of  Superintendent  of  the  University  Hospital 
and  Director  of  a  Laboratory  of  Hygiene,  at  a  salary  of  ;^6,ooo, 
and  would  transfer  his  residence  to  Philadelphia  at  a  proper  time  ; 
his  salary,  pending  the  arrival  of  that  time,  to  be  considerably  less, 
though  on  an  ascending  scale.  It  was  necessary  to  comply  with 
the  terms  of  this  contract  at  once,  as  Dr.  Billings  had  other  offers 
pending. 

"  I  saw  Mr.  Lea  immediately ;  and  he  was  induced  to  offer  to 
build  a  laboratory  at  a  cost  of  about  ;^50,ooo,  provided  that  Dr. 
Billings  would  be  its  Director,  and  provided  that  an  additional 
sum  of  ;^250,ooo  was  secured  for  the  equipment  and  endowment 
of  the  laboratory,  and  provided  further  that  hygiene  was  made  an 
obligatory  study  in  the  medical  course ;  and,  finally,  that  as  soon 
as  the  above-named  endowment  of  the  Laboratory  of  Hygiene  was 
secured,  an  effort  should  be  started  to  secure  a  proper  endowment 
of  the  Medical  School  to  enable  a  compulsory  four  years'  course  to 
be  adopted.  A  time  limit  was  stated  by  Mr.  Lea,  at  the  close  of 
which  his  offer  would  be  withdrawn. 

*'  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  start  the  subscription  with 
$10,000,  and  that  I  would  make  application  to  five  men  of  differ- 
ent types  and  would  be  governed  by  their  action  as  to  whether  I 
would  make  my  estate  personally  responsible  for  the  entire  amount, 
so  as  to  give  Dr.  Billings  a  written  assurance  of  his  appointment, 
which  would  justify  him  in  declining  the  other  offers  pending.    The    | 

278 


^T.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

five  men  I  saw  within  twenty-four  hours  were  the  late  Henry  C. 
Gibson,  who  cordially  offered  ^25,000  for  the  equipment  -,  the  late 
A.J.  Drexel,  who  instantly  subscribed  ^10,000;  Richard  Wood, 
who  gave  me  ;^7,500  ;  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  and  Dr.  D.  Hayes 
Agnew,  each  of  whom  cheerfully  subscribed  ^5,000.  This  seemed 
to  be  conclusive,  and  I  drew  a  codicil  to  my  will  making  my  estate 
responsible  for  the  payment  of  any  uncollected  balance  of  the 
endowment  needed,  and  drew  a  formal  instrument  making  myself 
personally  responsible,  during  life,  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  a 
similar  manner.  A  formal  acceptance  of  Dr.  Billings's  terms  was 
then  made,  and  thus  this  important  enterprise  was  accomplished. 

"  The  task  of  raising  the  money  was  very  difficult.  I  was 
wholly  unaided,  and  was  heavily  burdened  in  other  directions.  As 
the  limit  of  time  fixed  by  Mr.  Lea  approached  and  there  was  still 
^60,000  to  be  secured,  I  felt  a  sense  of  anxiety  that  I  cannot  over- 
state. It  seemed  to  me  that  my  health  must  break  down  under  the 
strain.  At  this  time  a  near  relative  died,  who  had  at  my  earnest 
solicitation  inserted  in  his  will  a  clause  leaving  ^60,000  to  the  Uni- 
versity for  the  establishment  of  a  Professorship,  and  fortunately  it 
was  stated  that  the  designation  of  the  Professorship  should  be  left 
to  me.  In  an  instant  I  had  decided  to  assign  it  to  the  Chair  of 
Hygiene,  thus  completing  the  amount  required  by  Mr.  Lea's  offer. 
There  are  few  things,  if  any,  in  my  life  that  I  look  back  upon 
with  more  satisfaction  than  carrying  through  this  difficult  and  im- 
portant matter  unaided  and  handicapped."  ^ 

Meanwhile  the  Law  School  had  been  removed,  as  he  had 
suggested,  to  the  centre  of  the  city,  and  located  at  Broad  and 
Chestnut  Streets.'     Its  Dean,  Professor  C.  Stuart  Patterson, 


^MS.  n.  d. 

^  It  occupied  the  sixth  floor  of  the  Girard  Life  Insurance,  Annuity 
and  Trust  Company's  building. 

279 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

Esq.,^  reported  it  as  in  a  flourishing  condition.  Not  the  least 
interesting  incident  in  its  recent  history  was  the  delivery  of 
the  address  inaugurating  the  term,  by  Mr.  Justice  Miller,  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  the  chapel  of  the 
University.'^  Changes  in  its  faculty  within  two  years  had 
quite  reorganized  the  school,  and  its  course  had  been  greatly 
extended.  Again  the  Provost  urged  that  "the  school  be 
housed  in  a  suitable,  dignified  building  of  its  own ;"  but 
this  consummation  seemed  yet  a  great  way  off. 

From  the  Dental  and  Veterinary  Departments  the  returns 
were  also  encouraging.  The  Veterinary  Hospital  was  sepa- 
rated entirely  from  the  Veterinary  School  in  September,  1 889  ;^ 
and  the  hospital  and  school,  a  monument  to  the  liberality  of  a 
deceased  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  J.  B.  Lippincott, 
Esq.,  immediately  showed  the  wisdom  of  the  change. 

The  activity  of  the  members  of  the  University  teaching 
force*  was  evidenced  by  the  extended  bibliography  of  their 
publications  in  art,  science,  and  literature,  aggregating  about 
seven  hundred  separate  treatises.^ 

The  financial  condition  of  the  University  showed  that  the 
Medical,"  the  Dental,''  the  Veterinary,^  and  the  Law  Depart- 

^  Professor  of  Constitutional  Law,  including  the  history  and  inter- 
pretation of  the  Constitution  and  the  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  the  States  and  the  Law  of  Real  Property  and  Convey- 
ancing. 

2  October  i,  1888. 

^September  10.     Resolution  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

*  October,  1887,  ^^  January,  1890. 

'Provost's  Report,  1889,  pp.  120,  164.      ^Balance,  ;^662.05. 
^  The  balance  in   favor  of  the   Dental  Department,  ;^3,032.94, 
was  the  largest  credit  of  any  of  the  departments  in  the  University. 

*  Balance,  ;^488.43. 

280 


Mr.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

ments  were  self-sustaining ;  that  the  Hospital  Department, 
though  having  an  annual  deficit,  was  conducted  through  the 
generosity  of  its  Board  of  Managers  without  loss  to  the  Uni- 
versity ;^  that  the  Departments  of  Arts  and  Sciences  were 
maintained  at  a  profit,*  and  that  the  Wharton  School  was 
maintained  at  a  loss.^  The  deficit  of  the  University  was 
fourteen  thousand  dollars  ($14,404.29),  caused  chiefly  by 
permanent  improvements.  The  aggregate  value  of  the  Uni- 
versity property,  including  its  endowments,  was  a  little  over 
three  millions  ($3,040,821.25),  an  increase  of  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars  ($798,906.49)  since  Provost  Pepper's  first 
report,  October  1,  1883,  '^  period  of  six  years. 

The  question  of  the  proper  site  for  a  University  was 
interesting  Dr.  Pepper  in  these  days,  and  he  seems  in  his 
investigation  of  the  subject  to  have  followed  his  habit  of 
ascertaining  the  opinion  of  those  having  experience.  About 
this  time  the  Trustees  of  Columbia  College  in  New  York 
City  elected  Honorable  Seth  Low  president  of  that  institu- 
tion. In  response  to  Dr.  Pepper's  inquiry  and  also  in  ac- 
knowledgment of  his  congratulations.  President  Low  sent 
the  following  letter : 

"  Bpooklyn,  October  17,  1889. 

"  I  thank  you  very  much  for  your  valued  letter  of  October  loth. 
I  heartily  agree  with  you  in  the  belief  that  our  large  cities  are  the 
best  places  for  great  universities.  Columbia  College  unquestiona- 
bly has  a  noble  opportunity  within  her  grasp,  and  it  will  be  my  en- 
deavor to  do  all  in  my  power  to  enable  her  to  avail  herself  of  it.  It 
encourages  me  greatly  to  find  that  men  like  yourself  see  a  fitness  in 
the  choice  which  the  Trustees  have  made.  It  is  so  great  a  depart- 
ure from  the  usual  action  in  such  cases  that  the  wisdom  of  it  may 
yet  remain  an  open  question  until  experience  has  thrown  some  light 


';g8o6.36  2^1,412.85  2^1,059.94. 

281 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

upon  the  subject.  Meanwhile,  the  general  favor  with  which  it  has 
been  received  is  a  great  inspiration  to  me  in  the  work  I  am  about  to 
undertake.     I  have  the  honor  to  remain, 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"Seth  Low."i 

Soon  after  submitting  his  Report  in  1887,  the  rumor  spread 
through  the  community  that  he  was  about  to  resign  from  the 
Provostship.  It  created  consternation  among  the  Faculty, 
some  of  whom  realized  that  the  efficiency  of  their  depart- 
ments and  even  their  permanent  connection  with  the  Uni- 
versity depended  upon  the  financial  results  of  Dr.  Pepper's 
personal  activity.  It  was  well  understood  that  the  enterprise 
and  vigor  of  the  institution,  at  least  for  the  present,  were 
personified  in  him,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  man  equal  to 
the  task  of  succeeding  him. 

The  income  of  the  University  from  its  vested  funds  was 
inadequate  to  meet  the  demands  of  all  its  departments,  and  it 
was  the  financial  weakness  of  the  institution  which  caused 
him  to  hesitate  to  leave  the  Provostship.  He  knew  very  well 
that  he  had  extended  the  lines  of  work  in  many  directions 
to  points  far  distant  from  the  base  of  supplies,  and  if  the 
ground  occupied  was  to  be  retained,  that  he  must  remain  at 
the  head  of  the  institution.  He  realized  that  the  time  had 
not  yet  come  for  his  retirement.  That  he  seriously  contem- 
plated this  step  is  indisputable.  The  financial  burden  upon 
him  was  heavy  to  bear.  Some  ot  his  associates  in  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  upon  whom  he  depended  for  assistance,  were 
wearying  in  well  doing,  and  the  labor  of  supporting  and  ad- 
ministering the  University  fell  wholly  upon  him.  The  world 
knew  little  of  his  burdens,  and  the  mass  of  the  people  who 

'  MS. 

282 


i^T.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

gave  the  subject  any  thought  fancied,  from  external  appear- 
ances of  prosperity,  that  the  University  was  rich. 

It  is  difficult  for  most  men  in  practical  affairs  to  understand 
how  a  great  school  may  receive  large  sums  of  money  or 
grants  of  land  and  yet  be  pinched  by  poverty.  The  demands 
upon  a  university  always  tend  to  outrun  its  means  of  subsist- 
ence. The  expense  of  equipment  is  always  enormous,  and 
the  income  from  tuition  seldom  equals  the  cost  of  instruction. 
The  University  at  this  time,  and  indeed  throughout  Dr.  Pep- 
per's Provostship,  was  in  the  age  of  extraordinary  expansion, 
the  most  expensive  age  in  the  history  of  a  great  school. 
The  professors  and  instructors  were  poorly  paid,  and  many 
of  them  were  living  on  the  expectation  of  plenty.  Dr.  Pep- 
per was  in  no  sense  a  small  man  in  dealing  with  the  salary 
question,  but  the  necessities  of  the  University  compelled  him 
to  get  the  ablest  men  possible  for  the  smallest  sums.  The 
professor  was  paid  his  salary,  meagre  as  it  might  be,  and  was 
never  discouraged  in  the  belief  that  the  time  was  at  hand 
when  he  might  receive  an  adequate  compensation. 

This  condition  of  affairs  prevailed  throughout  Dr.  Pepper's 
Provostship,  and  doubtless  also  in  other  universities  in  the 
country.  But  it  was  peculiarly  the  situation  at  Pennsylvania. 
He  knew  that  there  were  scores  of  instructors  in  the  Univer- 
sity who  had  been  attracted  thither  by  the  opportunities 
which  his  intelligence  and  energy  had  opened  up.  For  him 
to  leave  his  post  for  a  moment  signified  the  withdrawal  of 
lines  of  advance  and  the  retirement  of  earnest  and  capable 
men.  In  other  words,  he  was  responsible  for  the  condition 
of  the  University,  and  he  could  not  resign  with  justice  to 
his  colleagues. 

The  rumor  of  his  approaching  resignation  got  abroad  and 
quickly  precipitated  a  flood  of  regrets  and  expostulations. 

283 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

These  were  undoubtedly  signs  of  the  attitude  of  the  public 
towards  him.  That  he  was  contemplating  retirement  from  the 
Provostship,  that  he  openly  expressed  his  determination  to  a 
few  members  of  the  Faculty  who  possessed  his  confidence, 
and  that  these  vigorously  expostulated  with  him  against  taking 
the  step  at  this  time,  are  matters  of  memory.  The  whole 
affair  was  finally  set  at  rest  by  the  publication  of  a  statement 
which  went  forth  with  his  authority  in  one  of  the  city  papers. 
He  would  not  resign  until  the  University,  and  especially  the 
College  Department,  had  reached  the  high  position  which  he 
felt  sure  it  would  soon  attain. 

In  November,  1 889,  occurred  an  event  of  unusual  interest 
to  the  American  people, — the  assembling  of  the  Pan-Amer- 
ican Congress  at  Washington,  an  event  hastened  by  the 
diplomacy  of  Henry  Clay  and  James  G.  Blaine.  This 
meeting  of  representative  men  from  Mexico  and  Central  and 
South  America  made  an  opportunity  which  Dr.  Pepper  was 
very  quick  to  detect  and  to  utilize.  He  knew  that  from  its 
inception  the  Medical  School  had  been  patronized  gener- 
ously by  the  people  of  that  part  of  the  world.  He  quickly 
planned  to  extend  the  hospitalities  of  the  University  to  the 
delegates  to  the  Congress.  At  this  time  he  did  not  know 
that  since  1740  just  six  hundred  men  from  these  countries 
had  matriculated  and  probably  graduated  from  the  Uni- 
versity.^ These  facts  were  not  worked  out  until  three  years 
later.  But  he  knew  that  the  Medical  School  and  the  Jeffer- 
son Medical  College  had  been  generously  patronized  by  these 


'  A  table  showing  the  attendance  at  the  University  from  1740 
to  1892,  inclusive,  from  the  catalogue  extant,  and  from  other 
sources,  is  given  in  "  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,"  p.  202. 

284 


JEt.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Southern  countries,  and  on  this  fact  he  based  his  action. 
The  University  became  the  host  of  the  delegates,  and,  on 
the  twelfth  of  November,  they  were  greeted  by  all  the  de- 
partments in  the  most  hospitable  manner.  To  each  dele- 
gate was  given  a  neatly  printed  greeting  in  the  Spanish 
language,^  written  originally  by  the  Provost  and  briefly 
presenting  the  opportunities  which  the  University  offered. 
The  greeting  recited  the  history  of  the  University  from  the 
time  of  Dr.  Franklin,  enumerated  its  departments,  and  called 
the  attention  of  the  delegates  to  the  fact  that  there  were  at 
the  time  three  hundred  and  nine  students  attending  the  Uni- 
versity from  seven  South  American  countries.^ 


*  La  Universidad  de  Pennsylvania ;  Saluda  Cordialmente  a  los 
Senores  Delegados  de  la  Conferencia  Internacional  Americanna, 
Noviembre  12  de  1889. 

^  United  States  of  Colombia,  Costa  Rica,  Mexico,  Brazil,  Central 
America,  South  America,  West  Indies. 


285 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1890 


VI 


THE    UNIVERSITY;    RESIGNATION   FROM   THE 
PROVOSTSHIP 


I 


1890-1894 

I 
N  February,  1 890,  he  responded  to  the  toast  "  The  Ideal  1 

University"  at  the  banquet  of  the  Alumni  of  Colum- 
bia College,  New  York.  It  was  in  this  address  that  j 
he  first  gave  public  utterance  to  his  thought  of  a  National 
University  at  Washington.  After  referring  to  the  close  rela- 
tion between  Columbia  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
at  a  critical  time  in  their  history  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
he  said : 

"  I  do  not  care  to  discuss  the  question  whether  the  ideal  Uni- ; 
versity  will  most  readily  be  developed  in  a  small  town,  where  the 
University  is  the  town,  or  in  a  great  city,  where  the  University  can 
be  but  one  of  the  forces  influencing  the  life  of  the  vast  community. 
No  two  institutions  which  are  really  alive  and  growing  can  be  alike. 
Each  will  respond  to  special  impulses,  and  will  develop  a  purely 
individual  type  and  character.  The  essence  of  a  University  is  a 
breadth  of  view  embodied  in  its  organization  which  makes  it  keep 
in  touch  with  all  the  intellectual  needs  of  the  people  ;  an  atmosphere 
of  freedom  which  encourages  individuality  and  original  thought ; 
and  a  richness  of  equipment  in  library  and  museum  and  laboratory 
which  stimulates  research  and  investigation.  The  tendency  to 
conservatism  in  such  an  institution  is  inevitable ;  the  danger  is  of 
too  tenacious  adherence  to  tradition  and  of  blind  disregard  of  the 
tendencies  and  needs  of  each  new  generation.  The  more  closely 
in  touch  it  is  with  a  great  community — the  current  of  whose  life- 

286 


JEt.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

blood  is  thick  with  seething  thoughts  and  plans — the  less  likely  is 
conservatism  to  harden  into  apathy. 

"  Such  an  institution,  devoted  to  the  study  of  all  truth,  must,  of 
necessity,  be  religious,  but  cannot  be  denominational.  However  it 
may  be  where  a  state  religion  dominates  education,  in  this  country 
at  least,  where  free  government,  free  religion,  and  free  education 
are  our  priceless  heritage,  the  University,  just  as  the  public  school, 
must  be  kept  absolutely  aloof  from  denominationalism  of  all  kinds. 
When  a  University  is  then  fortunate  enough  to  be  seated  in  a  great 
community,  it  should  assert  itself  as  a  power  in  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious life  of  that  community.  There  is  missionary  work  to  be 
done  in  every  quarter,  and  there  are  schemes  of  conjoint  work  by 
the  clergy  and  laymen  of  all  denominations  which  will  find  no 
surer  rallying  point  and  no  more  zealous  body  of  assistants  than  in 
the  University. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  compute  the  resources  needed  for  the  work  of 
a  great  University.  It  is  to  draw  to  it  the  great  scholars  of  the 
world,  to  accumulate  the  treasures  of  the  past  and  the  present,  and 
to  illustrate  knowledge  in  all  its  branches ;  to  provide  ample  en- 
dowment for  research  and  for  scientific  publications,  and  to  enable 
worthy  students  to  do  advanced  work  freely  or  at  nominal  cost.  The 
annual  cost  of  maintenance  must  be  large,  many  times  larger  than 
the  total  income  of  any  American  University  to-day.  But  if  it  is 
seated  where  it  may  do  not  only  this,  but  may  also  make  itself  the 
true  centre  of  a  vast  community,  influencing  profoundly  its  social 
life,  and  elevating  and  quickening  its  intellectual  life,  there  are 
needed  not  only  vast  material  resources,  but  the  widest  and  most 
generous  co-operation. 

"  There  are  vast  libraries  and  museums  of  art,  of  archaeology, 
and  of  science,  which  need  some  bond  of  union  to  render  their 
treasures  more  available  and  useful.  There  are  many  learned 
societies  whose  valuable  collections  and  important  proceedings  lose 
much  of  their  just  effect  because  they  are  accessible  or  even  known 
to  but  a  few.     The  University  is  the  natural  centre  for  all  such. 

287 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1890 

Rapid  transit  removes  the  objections  ;  the  advantages  are  too  many 
and  obvious  to  bear  mention.  The  community  must  be  appealed 
to,  be  instructed,  be  interested  in  the  work  of  the  University. 
There  are  agencies  for  the  extension  of  University  influence  which 
suggest  themselves  at  once.  The  University  should  be  the  pur- 
veyor of  the  best  and  most  attractive  public  lectures,  and  should  be 
the  leading  patron  of  art  and  of  music.  Associations  which  owe 
their  dignity  and  their  permanent  vitality  to  their  connection  with 
the  University  will  readily  spring  up,  and  while  imposing  no  tax 
upon  its  resources  will  carry  on  this  University  extension  work  not 
only  in  the  community  immediately  surrounding,  but  in  many  out- 
lying centres. 

"  The  constituency  of  our  Universities  is  not  restricted  to  any 
class,  nor  are  they  conducted  for  the  profit  or  benefit  of  any  special 
group  of  people.  It  is  likely  that  they  are  the  most  unselfish,  the 
most  truly  charitable,  and  the  most  truly  democratic  of  our  institu- 
tions. So  it  will  result  that  the  ideal  University  will  become  more 
and  more  a  federation  of  all  the  forces  which  work  for  the  advance 
ment  and  elevation  of  society,  and  its  life  will  become  mingled  with 
that  of  all  kindred  institutions,  and  with  that  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. 

"  Every  people  have  their  standards  and  their  ideals.  We 
Americans  know  well  the  value  of  material  success,  but  it  is  not 
true  that  our  highest  standards  are  commercial  ones.  The  mere 
possession  of  wealth  must  inevitably  confer  less  distinction  as  its 
possessors  become  more  numerous.  But  the  wise  use  of  wealth, 
the  gifts  of  genius  and  the  acquirements  of  learning,  the  fine 
qualities  of  personal  character  and  of  public-spirited  citizenship, 
these  challenge  our  highest  admiration,  as  they  have  that  of  all 
vigorous  and  progressive  nations.  And  it  is  precisely  these  excel- 
lences that  the  influence  of  a  University  fosters  and  develops. 
The  time  has  passed  when  the  most  interesting  questions  about 
University  work  are  whether  Greek  or  German  is  the  more  useful 
study.     For  now  it  may  fairly  be  claimed — and  I  say  this  more 

288 


^T.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

emphatically  because  I  quote  the  evidence  of  one  whose  authority 
will  not  be  doubted — that  '  we  require  of  our  Universities  that  they 
shall  equip  and  thoroughly  train  American  citizens.'  We  are  try- 
ing in  this  country  an  experiment  in  civilization  of  grand  propor- 
tions and  commensurate  risk.  Even  if  the  tide  of  immigration  has 
begun  to  ebb,  there  are  elements  in  the  problem  before  us  well  cal- 
culated to  arouse  anxiety.  We  are  trying  the  incomparable  experi- 
ment of  trusting  to  the  power  of  education,  religious  and  secular, 
to  enable  sixty  millions  of  people  to  govern  themselves. 

"  The  man  on  horseback  is  less  than  a  spectre  here,  and  the 
immense  part  which  the  army  and  navy  play  in  the  national  life  of 
other  countries  is  barely  recognized  with  us.  The  absence  of  the 
throne  and  the  aristocracy  omits  conservative  elements  which  must 
be  replaced,  and  which  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  replaced  by  our 
political  forces.  When  the  separate  sects  of  Protestantism  shall 
federate,  if  not  unite,  in  support,  at  least,  of  organized  charity  and 
universal  free  education,  we  shall  have  a  constructive  power  of  irre- 
sistible magnitude.  But,  for  the  moment,  it  may  be  safely  claimed 
that  the  development  of  our  university  system  towards  an  ideal 
extension  is  second  in  importance  to  none  of  the  practical  questipns 
of  our  national  life." 

All  this  he  said  by  way  of  prelude  to  his  remarks  on  a 
National  University  with  which  he  closed  his  speech : 

^'  The  more  colleges  and  universities  we  have  the  better.     There 
is  work  for  them  all,  and  there  is  money  enough  to  endow  them  all 
richly.     Let  each  strive  hard  for  the  attainment  of  the  loftiest  ideal 
it  can  set  up.      Different  as  their  development  must  be,  they  will  all 
at  heart  be  one,  and  will  all  be  loyal  to  the  common  cause.      But  I 
I  confess  that  the  splendid  system  of  American  colleges  and  universi- 
'^'     ties  will  seem  to  me  incomplete  until  we  have  at  Washington  a  great 
university,  free   from   political  as  well  as   from   denominational  in- 
fluence, and  representing,  if  not  actually  administered,  by  the  lead- 
ing institutions  of  the  land.     Just  as  the  ideal  individual  university 
19  289 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1890 

may  be  viewed  as  an  aggregation  of  many  colleges  and  a  federation 
of  all  kindred  institutions  accessible,  so  I  hope  to  see,  as  the  ideal 
university,  an  university  of  universities  formed  as  the  central  gov- 
ernment is  formed,  by  the  federation  of  many  independent  institu- 
tions, planted  strongly  at  the  capital  of  the  nation,  using  the 
unequalled  collections  which  are  growing  there  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  highest  studies  under  the  most  eminent  masters,  and  pro- 
claiming to  the  world  that,  among  the  ideals  which  we  Americans 
hold  by  is  that  of  education,  thorough,  pure,  and  free,  from  the 
cross-roads  district  school  to  the  groves  and  halls  of  the  loftiest 
university."  ^ 

This  address  and  that  on  "  The  University  in  Modern  Life" 
were  reprinted  together.  The  criticism  which  they  excited 
is  well  expressed  in  the  following  letter  to  him  from  the 
Dean  of  the  Law  School : 

"  Philadelphia,  May  2,  1890. 

"  My  dear  Provost  : 

"  I  have  read  with  great  pleasure,  and  with  that  pride  which  a 
University  man  ought  to  feel  as  to  brilliant  work  done  by  his  chief, 
your  speeches  upon  '  The  University  in  Modern  Life'  and  '  The 
Ideal  University.'  You  have  made  possible  to  our  Alma  Mater  the 
realization  of  your  high  ideal. 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

"  C.  Stuart  Patterson."  ^ 

In  July,  1 892,  he  delivered  an  address  before  the  National 
Educational  Association,  at  Saratoga,  on  "  The  Relation  of 


^  Remarks  at  the  banquet  of  the  Alumni  of  Columbia  College, 
New  York,  February  3,  1890,  in  response  to  the  toast,  "  The  Ideal 
University,"  by  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  1890. 

2  MS. 

290 


^T.  46]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

Undergraduate  to  Post-graduate  Curricula."^  It  is  doubt- 
less the  most  important  contribution  he  made  to  educational 
Hterature,  with  the  exception  of  that  of  1877  on  medical 
education.  It  abounds  in  historical  information,  and  at 
the  time  of  its  delivery  was  thought  to  take  very  advanced 
ground.  His  manuscript  notes  show  that,  as  was  usual  with 
him,  he  had  gathered  his  data  with  painstaking  care.  He 
made  a  thorough  study  of  the  subject  in  the  English,  Scotch, 
French,  and  German  schools,  and  his  wide  acquaintance 
among  the  British  educators  enabled  him  to  acquire  his 
information  at  first  hand. 

The  Saratoga  address  expressed  Dr.  Pepper's  conviction 
of  the  true  method  of  grouping  university  studies  so  as  to 
avoid  free  electives  at  one  extreme  and  the  faults  of  the  old 
four  years'  course,  with  its  inflexibility,  at  the  other.  The 
position  he  took  at  Saratoga  he  maintained  at  the  University, 
and  there  carried  out  in  practice  what  in  his  address  he  elab- 
orated in  theory.  Running  through  all  his  reports  as  Provost 
is  a  constant  defense  of  the  group  system  of  studies.  He 
did  not  believe  that  a  young  man,  inexperienced,  as  are  all 
who  come  up  to  the  University,  was  capable  of  making  a 
wise  selection  among  free  electives.  The  risk  was  too  great. 
Most  freshmen  would  choose  the  line  of  least  resistence,  and 
if  possible  omit  all  studies  which  compelled  serious  work. 
A  University  course  must  be  made  a  happy  medium  between 
extremes,  and  be  adapted  to  the  youth  of  moderate  capacity 


^  The  Relation  of  Undergraduate  to  Post-graduate  Curricula. 
An  address  read  before  the  National  Educational  Association  at  Sara- 
toga, July  12,  1892,  by  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia:  Allen,  Lane  &  Scott,  1892.  24 
pp. 

291 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

who  had  neither  the  courage  to  select  a  well-grouped  body 
of  studies  nor  the  ability  to  win  honor  in  the  most  difficult 
subjects.  The  modern  tendency  to  make  university  life  as 
easy  as  possible  endangers  the  stability  of  sound  scholarship, 
and  it  was  against  this  catastrophe  that  Dr.  Pepper  was  con- 
stantly contending.  He  believed  that  a  University  faculty 
was  a  better  judge  of  the  studies  that  a  freshman  should 
undertake  than  was  the  freshman  himself  Therefore  he 
favored  the  group  system,  by  which  the  student  would  have 
a  reasonable  range  of  choice  and  yet  be  under  obligation  to 
pursue  a  group  of  studies  more  or  less  co-ordinated  and 
necessitating  a  reasonable  amount  of  exacting  study.  The 
student  was  thus  saved  from  his  own  folly  and  ignorance. 
The  system  of  group  electives  at  the  University  would 
enable  him  to  escape  four  years  of  intellectual  lazi- 
ness. 

Nor  was  Dr.  Pepper  persuaded  even  by  the  free  elective 
system  elsewhere  that  it  should  prevail  in  the  post-graduate 
work.  There  should  be,  he  thought,  a  reasonable  super- 
vision exercised  by  the  Faculty,  and  the  principle  followed  in 
undergraduate  work  should  prevail.  His  reports  as  Provost 
show  the  workings  of  the  group  elective  system  at  the  Uni- 
versity. His  Saratoga  address  was  an  examination  in  detail 
of  the  theory  underlying  this  system,  and  is  undoubtedly  as 
able  a  defense  of  it  as  we  have  in  our  educational  liter- 
ature. 

The  address  called  forth  opinions  from  educational  jour- 
nals and  from  teachers  in  schools  and  colleges  throughout 
the  country.  The  following  letter  from  J.  Havens  Richard, 
S.J.,  President  of  Georgetown  College,  has  embodied  senti- 
ments held  by  many  educators : 


292 


^T.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  Georgetown  College, 

"  West  Washington,  D.  C, 

"  October  7,  1892. 

"  Please  accept  my  cordial  thanks  for  your  most  interesting  ad- 
dress on  the  Relation  of  Undergraduate  to  Post-graduate  Curricula. 
It  is  a  subject  demanding  close  attention  at  the  present  time,  and  I 
rejoice  to  see  men  in  your  position  and  ability  beginning  to  discuss  it. 
"  It  is  a  subject  of  surprise  and  self-gratulation  to  me  to  discover 
that  your  opinions  and  conclusions  agree  in  the  main  with  my  own 
convictions,  which  I  had  thought  hopelessly  out  of  accord  with 
modern  educational  systems.  Your  address  and  that  of  Professor 
Goodwin  of  Harvard  are  omens  of  good.  The  latter  has  been 
already  read  in  our  dining-room  to  the  Faculty,  and  I  shall  have 
the  same  done  with  your  pamphlet. 

"  Repeating  the  expression  of  my  thanks,  I  remain, 
"  Very  sincerely  yours, 

"  J.  Havens  Richard,  S.J., 

**  President. 

"  P.  S. — May  I  ask  you,  if  you  have  not  already  done  so,  to  send 
copies  of  the  address  to  the  deans  of  our  Medical  and  Law  Depart- 
ments ?  They  are  Dr.  George  L.  Magruder,  and  M.  F.  Morris, 
LL.D."  1 

About  this  time  the  University  lost  by  death  the  services 
of  several  of  its  distinguished  men,  among  them  Joseph 
Leidy,  Dr.  Pepper's  tribute  to  whom  has  already  been  given  ; 
D.  Hayes  Agnew,  "  of  illustrious  fame  in  the  profession  of 
surgery ;"  John  J.  Reese,  Emeritus  Professor  of  Medical 
Jurisprudence  and  Toxicology ;  Algernon  Sydney  Biddle, 
Professor  of  Torts,  Evidence,  and  Practice  of  Law ;  Dr. 
Formad,  the  distinguished  pathologist ;  Professor  McElroy, 
a   classmate    of    Dr.    Pepper's    and    for    twenty-five    years 

'  MS. 

293 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

identified  with  the  University;^  and  Mr.  Edmund  A.  Steward- 
son,  to  whose  professional  enthusiasm  the  rapid  development 
of  the  School  of  Architecture  was  largely  due. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Trustees  in  securing  additional  land — 
ten  acres — in  1889  had  been  more  than  vindicated  by  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  University  since  and  the  daily  need  of  more 
territory  for  the  site  of  University  buildings.  Upon  a  por- 
tion of  the  new  ground  the  Institute  of  Hygiene  had  been 
erected,  another  portion  had  been  assigned  to  the  Athletic 
Association,  and  the  triangular  lot  at  the  intersection  of 
Woodland  Avenue  and  Thirty-sixth  Street  had  been  con- 
veyed, with  the  consent  of  the  city,'^  to  the  Wistar  Institute  of 
Anatomy  and  Biology,  upon  which  the  fine  building  of  the 
Institute  was  in  process  of  erection. 

In  1890  Dr.  Pepper  had  ventured  the  opinion  to  the  Trus- 
tees that  the  upper  rooms  of  the  new  Library  Building  would 
doubtless  furnish  ample  space  for  years  to  come  for  the  recep- 
tion of  collections  in  the  then  newly-formed  Department  of 
Archaeology,  but,  as  he  now  said,  events  had  proved  that  he 
had  greatly  underrated  the  vigor  of  the  new  department  and 
the  hearty  interest  which  the  public  would  take  in  its  work. 
Not  only  had  every  room  in  the  Library  Building  been  filled 
to  overflowing  with  the  collections,  which  represented  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  value,  but  every  possible 
space  upon  the  stairway  and  under  it  had  been  used  for  the 
display  of  parts  of  the  collections.  "  Far  sooner  than  was 
expected,"  said  he,  "  the  urgent  demand  comes  upon  us  for  a  | 
building  having  all  the  fire-proof  security  of  the  Library  and 


^  See  p.  272.     Note. 

^  Ordinance  of  March    19,   1892.     See   Provost's  Report  from 
October,  1892,  to  June,  1894,  p.  62. 

294 


JEr.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

especially  adapted  to  the  exhibition  of  these  priceless  and 
rapidly-growing  collections." 

The  next  great  building  contemplated  after  the  Library, 
it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  Institute  of  Hygiene,  the 
construction  of  which  was  carried  on  under  the  immediate 
personal  supervision  of  the  donor,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea,  in 
constant  association  with  Dr.  John  S.  Billings.  The  result 
was  a  structure  which  in  itself  remains  an  object  lesson  in 
hygiene,  a  model  of  perfect  adaptation  to  its  scientific  pur- 
poses. On  the  twenty-second  of  February,  1892,  the  Insti- 
tute of  Hygiene  was  formally  opened.^  The  transfer  to  the 
University  of  the  gift  of  Mr.  Lea  being  made  for  him  by 
Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  who,  in  the  course  of  his  address,  read 
a  brief  letter  from  Mr.  Lea  in  response  to  his  request  "  for  a 
few  words  on  the  subject  and  the  motive  which  led  to  the 
founding  of  the  new  Laboratory  of  Hygiene."  This  letter 
is  well  worthy  of  preservation  : 

"  My  dear  Dr.  Mitchell  : 

"  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  respond  to  your  request  for  a  few  words 
on  the  object  and  motives  which  led  to  the  founding  of  the  new 
Laboratory  of  Hygiene. 

''  Of  all  the  claims  of  your  noble  profession  on  the  gratitude  of 
mankind,  perhaps  the  chiefest  is  due  to  the  zeal  of  its  members  in 
laboring  as  earnestly  for  the  prevention  as  for  the  cure  of  disease. 
Scientific  hygiene  is  essentially  the  creation  of  physicians,  who  have 
ever  been  foremost  in  discovering  and  promulgating  the  facts  and 
principles  on  which  improvment  of  public  health  must  be  based. 
Great   as   have   been   the    strides   of   this   science   during  the   last 


^  The  Opening  Exercises  of  the  Institute  of  Hygiene  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  February  22,  1892. 
Philadelphia,  1892.      66  pp. 

29s 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

generation,  even  more  Is  reasonably  to  be  expected  of  it  in  the 
future.  It  is  not  visionary  to  say  that  we  are  on  the  threshold  of 
discoveries  which  promise,  if  rightly  used,  to  relieve  humanity  from 
some  of  the  distressing  evils  which  have  weighed  it  down  in  the 
past.  To  this  most  desirable  consummation  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  makes  a  notable  contribution  in  rendering  the  study 
of  hygiene  compulsory  on  all  who  seek  its  degrees  in  Medicine, 
Architecture,  and  Civil  Engineering,  and  in  organizing  a  Depart- 
ment of  Hygiene,  where  scientific  investigations  and  instruction 
can  be  considered  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 

"  Important  as  will  be  the  functions  of  this  department  in  stimu- 
lating original  research,  perhaps  even  more  immediately  important 
to  the  community  will  be  its  educational  activity  in  annually  send- 
ing forth  numbers  of  thoroughly  trained  and  well-equipped  hy- 
gienists.  Through  their  agency  we  may  expect  that  popular  errors 
will  be  largely  dispelled  and  popular  indifference  to  the  laws  of 
health  will  be  removed.  The  mass  of  human  misery  directly 
traceable  to  these  errors  and  this  indifference  can  scarce  be  over- 
estimated. Of  this  our  own  city  offers  a  pregnant  example.  No 
great  centre  of  population  is  anywhere  more  happily  situated  than 
Philadelphia  with  respect  to  hygienic  advantages.  It  has  every 
requisite  for  healthful  prolonged  life  in  its  soil,  climate,  facilities 
for  drainage,  abundance  of  pure  water  within  reach,  ample  space 
over  which  to  spread  without  overcrowding.  If  proper  respect 
were  paid  to  hygienic  rules,  preventable  disease  would  be  virtually 
unknown  among  us,  and  our  annual  death-rate  would  not  exceed 
fifteen  to  the  thousand.  Yet  during  the  past  year  the  interments 
amounted  to  22,649,  which,  in  a  population  of  eleven  hundred 
thousand  souls  is  over  20  j4  per  thousand.  Now  this  difference  of 
5  y^  per  thousand  means  about  6000  deaths  per  annum  from  purely 
preventable  causes — 6000  human  beings  snatched  away  before 
their  time,  and  other  thousands  reduced  to  want  by  the  loss  of 
those  on  whom  they  were  dependent.  Yet,  ghastly  as  is  this  aggre- 
gate, it  is  in  reality  the  smallest  portion  of  the  evil.     Experience 

296 


JEr.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

shows  that  every  death  represents  about  twenty  cases  of  sickness 
not  immediately  fatal,  so  that  6000  preventable  deaths  per  annum 
infer  120,000  cases  of  preventable  sickness.  Each  case  of  sickness 
will  average  from  thirty-five  to  forty  days,  so  that  every  year  in 
Philadelphia  there  are  12,000  years  of  preventable  sickness  endured 
by  its  inhabitants. 

"  Think  what  an  aggregate  of  suffering  this  represents — think  of 
the  thousands  of  families  who  are  annually  exposed  to  privation 
through  the  disability  incurred  by  the  bread-winner  or  by  the  mother 
— think  how  many  of  those  who  are  hovering  on  the  border  be- 
tween comfort  and  poverty  are  permanently  plunged  into  pauperism 
through  temporary  sickness — and  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the 
Department  of  Hygiene,  if  rightly  administered  and  efficiently 
supported  by  the  public,  will  not  be  merely  a  valuable  scientific 
adjunct  to  the  University,  but  will  be  the  most  practical  and  the 
most  useful  institution  of  public  beneficence  that  the  community 
can  have,  for  it  will  deal  in  the  largest  way  with  the  causes  of  these 
vast  evils.  If  it  is  blessed  to  relieve  human  miseries,  it  is  still 
more  blessed  to  prevent  them. 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

"  Henry  Charles  Lea." 

In  accepting  the  building  on  behalf  of  the  University,  Dr. 
Pepper,  after  paying  tribute  to  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Lea  and 
of  Mr.  Henry  C.  Gibson,  who  had  contributed  to  the  en- 
dowment of  the  Institution,  said : 

"  Never  has  the  circle  of  our  University  departments  opened  to 
receive  a  more  welcome  addition.  To  detect  error,  to  discover  and 
diffuse  truth,  has  long  been  our  labor  here.  Here  first  in  the  coun- 
try was  taught  the  august  science  of  the  law.  Here,  also,  first  was 
taught  the  healing  art,  and  for  well  nigh  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
the  history  of  medical  science  in  America  has  been,  in  large  part, 
that  of  our  Medical  School ;  and  now,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  which 
has  brought  the  recognition  of  the  larger  truth  that  prevention,  and 

297 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

not  cure  alone,  must  be  our  aim,  is  added  the  first  Institution  de- 
voted to  the  study  of  the  causes  of  disease  and  of  the  laws  for 
maintaining  health. 

"  An  observant  and  critical  public  will  note  the  advantages  which 
have  resulted  from  the  establishment  of  this  Institute  in  connection 
with  a  great  University. 

"  While  its  individuality  is  perpetuated  so  far  as  desired  by  the 
founders,  it  is  brought  into  organic  relation  with  cognate  depart- 
ments, to  which  it  will  contribute  most  valuable  assistance,  and 
from  which,  in  turn,  it  will  receive  important  co-operation.  The 
vast  services  this  Institute  will  render  to  science  and  society  can  be 
but  feebly  outlined  at  present.  They  will  be  gratefully  recognized 
in  the  future." 

An  important  and  unique  structure  erected  in  1892  was 
the  Canine  Infirmary  in  connection  with  the  Veterinary 
Hospital ;  and  in  the  same  year  was  built  the  Central 
Heat  and  Light  Station,  by  means  of  which  all  the 
University  buildings,  though  widely  separated  over  the  ex- 
tensive campus,  were  for  the  first  time  properly  lighted  and 
heated.  An  announcement  was  made  that  the  plans  were  in 
preparation  for  the  construction  of  a  Chemical  Laboratory 
for  the  College  Department.  A  new  Engineering  Laboratory 
had  been  erected  contiguous  to  the  Central  Station,  by  which 
additional  facilities  were  added  to  the  work  of  the  Towne 
Scientific  School.  The  erection  of  the  Engineering  Labora- 
tory made  possible  the  removal  of  the  Mechanical  Engineer- 
ing Department  from  the  College  Hall,  and  thus  afforded 
rooms  for  the  use  of  other  departments  long  greatly  in  need' 
of  them.  The  erection  of  the  Chemical  Laboratory  would 
permit  the  removal  of  the  Chemical  Department  fi-om  thej 
College  Hall  and  relieve  the  congestion  which  had  for  severa^ 
years  interfered  with  the  work  of  other  departments. 

298 


^T.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

In   the  College  the  most  important  changes  which  the 
Provost  now  reported  were  the  adoption  of  the  four  years' 
technical  course  in  architecture,  in  mechanical  and  electrical 
engineering,  and  in  chemistry,  not  as  superceding,  but  as  an 
alternative  to  the  former  five  years'  course  embracing  these 
i  subjects,  which  was  still  retained.     The  School  of  Architect- 
ure, founded  in  1891,  had  won  the  warm  support  of  members 
of  the  architectural  profession,  and  was  attended  by  a  greater 
number  of  students  with  each  successive  term.     Owing  to 
the  accession  of  students,  the  quarters  assigned  to  the  Depart- 
Liment  of  Chemistry  became  entirely  inadequate,  whence  the 
i|  demand  for  a  new  Chemical  Laboratory.     The  School  of 
Biology    had    participated    in    the   general    prosperity,   and 
'  through   the    co-operation   of  Mr.  Charles   K.  Landis   had 
erected  a  Marine  Laboratory  at  Sea  Isle  City,  New  Jersey. 
Here  for  two  summers  classes  had  been  taught,  private  in- 
°  vestigations  pursued,  and  interesting  collections  made  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Biological  Faculty.     The  Laboratory 
^  and   Summer   School   were    in    charge   of  Dr.    Milton    J. 
'  Greeman.      This   enterprise    was,  however,  destined   to    be 
)  short-lived.     The  place  selected  for  the  School  proved  un- 
5  suitable,  and  the  whole  project  was  finally  abandoned. 
^      Dr.  Pepper   raised   the    question    whether   the    Wharton 
^  School  of  Finance  and  Economy,  which  had  of  late  attracted 
^'  an  increasing  number  of  young  men  to  its  course,  should  not 
■  be  made  a  four  years'  course.     In  1 890  eminent  members  of 
^  its  Faculty  had  established  the  American  Academy  of  Social 
^  Science,  a   chartered    organization  which,  by   its   extended 
'  membership,  its  interesting  scientific  sessions,  and  its  publica- 
-  tions,  had  become  a  recognized  force  in  its  own  domain. 
''      Beginning  with  January,  1892,  the  daily  chapel  services 
were  entrusted  to  four  chaplains   selected   from  prominent 

299 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

clergymen  of  different  denominations,  each  of  whom  served 
for  one  week  at  a  time  daily  throughout  the  college  year.  In 
addition  to  the  customary  services,  reading  a  selection  from 
the  Bible  and  a  prayer,  the  Chaplain  delivered  a  brief  address 
on  some  timely  topic,  the  entire  service  lasting  only  fifteen 
minutes.^ 

In  calling  attention  to  the  most  urgent  need  of  the  College 
Department,  that  of  adequate  financial  support,  the  Provost 
analyzed  the  situation  in  a  manner  that  must  appeal  to  col- 
lege authorities  and  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  diffi- 
culties of  college  administration. 

"  There  are  in  every  college,"  said  he,  "  pay  students  and  free 
students,  but  the  difference  between  them  is  merely  in  degree.  No 
man  can  exhibit  receipted  tuition  bills  and  say  that  '  I  have  paid  for 
my  son's  education.'  He  has  contributed  to  the  expense  of  that 
education  all  that  was  asked  of  him,  but  the  education  has  cost  in 
actual  outlay  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent,  more  than  the  total  of 
his  bills.  The  remainder  was  paid  from  the  income  of  gifts  and 
legacies  by  men  and  women  long  dead,  to  whom  this  higher  educa- 
tion was  something  of  sacred  importance,  and  by  a  steady  stream 
of  gifts  from  the  comparatively  few  of  the  living  who  feel  that  in 
the  maintenance  of  institutions  like  ours  they  can  best  promote  the 
highest  welfare  of  their  fellow-men.  Without  such  resources  as 
these  not  a  college  in  the  land  could  be  maintained  ;  the  tuition  fees 
cannot  be  raised  to  a  sustaining  point  without  debarring  from  higher 
education  a  large  proportion  of  the  free  men  for  whose  education 
the  college  deserves  to  exist.  Without  such  resources  free  tuition 
to  those  from  some  of  whom  will  come  the  highest  honor  to  col- 


*  The  first  Chaplains  thus  appointed  were  the  Rev.  Dr.  George 
Dana  Boardman,  the  Rev.  Dean  Bartlett,  the  Rev.  Charles  Wood, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  A.  N.  Chapman,  the  Rev.  Leverett  Bradley,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  E.  Lippincott,  and  the  Rev.  John  T.  Buckley. 

300 


iET.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

leges  that  have  educated  them  would  be  impossible.  The  need  of 
such  resources  becomes  yearly  more  urgent.  We  are  painfully 
conscious  that  the  average  salaries  now  paid  to  professors  and  in- 
structors are  altogether  unworthy  of  the  talents,  the  zeal,  the  loy- 
alty, and  the  labors  that  are  demanded  of  one  who  is  at  all  worthy 
of  such  a  position.  The  material  equipment  needed  for  our  ad- 
vanced modern  education  represents  a  very  large  capital,  a  large 
annual  expenditure  to  keep  them  abreast' with  the  times.  Mean- 
while, with  the  increase  of  population  and  under  the  stimulus  of  a 
more  widely  diffused  secondary  and  primary  educational  system,  an 
ever  increasing  number  of  young  men  are  thronging  to  our  doors. 
Among  them  are  some  of  rare  promise,  to  whom  even  our  mild 
tuition  charge  is  prohibitory.  We  have  already  strained  our  re- 
sources, and  to  the  utmost,  in  the  liberal  grant  of  scholarships  to 
deserving  students  ;  to  continue  them  in  such  number  as  in  the  last 

!few  years  is  absolutely  impossible  on  existing  means.  Our  one 
supreme  and  urgent  need  is  that  of  money.  We  need  first  an 
endowment  fund  worthy  of  the  work  which  is  committed  to  our 
hands." 


There  is  probably  not  a  college  president  in  America  who 
could  not  truly  make  these  words  his  own. 

Therefore,  Dr.  Pepper  appealed  again  for  the  foundation 
of  scholarships  and  fellowships,  and  he  pointed  to  the  grow- 
ing Department  of  Philosophy,  which  in  two  years  had 
increased  in  the  number  of  its  matriculates  from  fifty-three 
to  one  hundred  and  seventeen,  showing,  he  said,  that  the  un- 
usual facilities  which  the  University  was  able  to  offer  in 
special  lines  of  study  were  fully  appreciated  by  that  in- 
creasing number  of  men  and  women  who  were  finding  post- 
graduate studies  essential  to  them  for  their  full  equipment 
for  their  life  work.  Of  this  matriculation  women  already 
formed  a  larger  number ;  and  on  the  4th  of  May,  1892,  the 

301 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

Graduate  Department  for  women  was  formally  opened. 
The  building  for  the  use  of  the  department  was  given  by- 
Colonel  J.  R.  Bennett. 

The  establishment  of  a  Graduate  School  for  Women  in 
the  University  marked  a  departure  in  its  policy.  For  some 
years  there  had  been  a  small  attendance  of  women  upon  some 
of  the  courses,  notably  those  in  Biology,  History,  and  Politi- 
cal Economy,  and  in  the  classes  known  as  the  "  Teachers' 
Classes,"  which  were  attended  on  Saturdays ;  but  women 
were  not  admitted  to  undergraduate  studies  as  candidates  for 
a  degree.  They  were  suffered  to  enter  the  lower  classes  and 
make  the  best  of  their  opportunities.  The  matter  was  one 
of  condescension  on  the  part  of  the  University,  and  some- 
thing of  aggressive,  patient  perseverance  on  the  part  of  the 
women  students. 

Towards  the  question  of  the  education  of  women  in  the 
University  Dr.  Pepper's  opinions  had  undergone  a  radical 
change  since  his  accession  to  the  Provostship.  In  his 
inaugural,  February  22,  1881,  he  had  said: 

"  It  seems  impossible  for  any  school  which  intends  at  the  present 
time  to  exert  its  full  influence  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  com- 
munity to  neglect  the  subject  of  the  higher  education  of  women. 
I  do  not  refer  to  any  such  question  as  that  of  opening  the  Uni- 
versity classes  to  young  women,  because  I  regard  it  as  settled  beyond 
dispute  that  the  co-education  of  the  sexes  is  inadmissible.  The 
University  has  recently  been  making  cautious  advances  in  this 
direction,  and  persons  of  both  sexes  are  now  admitted  to  certain 
lectures  and  laboratory  work.  It  may  be  that  this  comprises  as 
much  as  is  safe  or  desirable  to  be  done  in  this  particular  direction ; 
and  as  the  special  function  of  the  University  is  not  the  education 
of  women,  it  seems  proper  that  further  action  should,  await  the 
expression  of  some  carefully-matured  wishes  or  plans  on  the  part 

302 


JEt.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

of  those  who  may  be  assumed  to  represent  the  interests  of  women 
in  this  matter.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  some  more  definite 
provision  is  needed  than  now  exists  tq,  carry  the  education  of 
women  beyond  the  point  generally  attainable  at  present.  The 
difficulty  has  been  in  part  met  by  the  establishment  of  special  col- 
leges, such  as  Vassar,  Wellesley,  Smith,  or  Taylor,^  and  recently 
by  the  system  of  private  college  instructions  for  women  in  Cambridge, 
but  other  arrangements  than  these  are  required  to  provide  the  neces- 
sary facilities  for  the  large  number  of  women  who  desire  thorough 
and  advanced  education. 

"  This  University  will  gladly  witness  and  co-operate  with  all 
earnest  efforts  to  secure  such  facilities.  It  recognizes  the  urgent 
need  of  Philadelphia,  and  of  every  other  great  city,  in  this  direction. 
It  realizes  strongly  the  good  that  would  follow  from  a  more  general 
diffusion  of  higher  culture  and  increased  activity  in  intellectual  pur- 
suits among  our  women,  and  the  powerful  influence  which  would 
be  reflected  upon  its  own  future  prosperity.  There  should  be 
accessible,  not  only  to  those  who  desire  to  become  teachers  or  to 
those  who  are  able  or  willing  to  take  up  their  residence  at  a  special 
college,  but  to  all  women  who  exhibit  the  proper  qualifications,  a 
course  of  education  in  many  respects  the  same  as  the  usual  Uni- 
versity curriculum,  in  certain  particulars  different,  but  of  equal 
excellence  and  thoroughness.  Proficiency  should  be  tested  by 
rigid  examinations,  and  satisfactory  attainments  should  receive  suit- 
able certificates.  The  demand  for  such  facilities  is  great,  and  is 
constantly  becoming  more  generally  recognized.  The  particular 
arrangements  for  securing  this  object  may  vary  in  different  places. 
If  true  to  her  traditions,  Philadelphia  will  certainly  assume  a  lead- 
ing position  in  the  movement ;  and  while  this  University  cannot 
take  the  initiative,  it  will  watch  with  the  deepest  interest  and  be 


*  It  was  decided  later  that  this  institution  (founded  by  Joseph 
W.  Taylor,  M.D.,  of  Burlington,  N.  J.,  who  bequeathed  ^900,000 
for  the  purpose)  should  be  known  as  Bfyn  Mawr  College. 

303 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

ready  to  assist  as  far  as  possible  all  well-considered  eflForts  towards 
this  end." 

This  attitude  towards  the  question  of  the  education  of 
women  fairly  reflects  the  commonplace  opinion  of  the  time. 
Dr.  Pepper  did  not  start  out,  when  he  was  elected  Provost,  as 
a  reformer  in  education.  His  notions  were  conservative  on 
all  subjects.     While  he  might  not  be 

"  The  first  by  whom  the  new  is  tried," 

he  was  seldom 

"  The  last  to  cast  the  old  aside." 

His  utterances  on  the  education  of  women  in  his  inaugural 
meant  no  more  than  that  the  University  was  not  prepared  to 
undertake  their  higher  education.  If  any  one  felt  disposed  to 
endow  a  woman's  department,  the  money  would  be  carefully 
expended  and  the  fund  administered  as  well  as  circumstances 
permitted.  But  in  1881  he  had  no  enthusiasm  whatever  for 
the  subject.  His  position  excused  him.  The  University 
was  in  sad  need  of  reorganization,  and  his  energies  were 
needed  in  other  directions  than  that  of  providing  for  the 
education  of  women. 

During  the  following  fifteen  years  he  developed  in  all 
directions,  and  his  strenuous  efforts  to  co-ordinate  the  educa- 
tional forces  of  Pennsylvania  brought  him  in  contact  with 
intellectual  men  and  women  from  whom  he  learned  many 
things.  There  is  no  doubt  that  his  success  as  an  educator 
was  largely  due  to  the  help  he  received  from  women.  He 
possessed  great  influence  with  them,  and  he  utilized  it  fully. 
No  small  portion  of  the  vast  sum  of  money  and  valuable 
lands,  aggregating  in  value  upward  of  six  millions  of  dollars, 
which  he  obtained  for  the    University  and   the   system  of 

304 


^T.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

museums  which  he  was  instrumental  in  estabhshing  were 
secured  through  the  immediate  assistance  of  women.  No 
man  can  take  so  practical  a  course  of  instruction  as  the  one 
he  took  without  attaining  liberal  views  of  life.  The  result  in 
his  case  was  the  acceptance  and  advocacy  of  more  liberal 
ideas  respecting  the  education  of  women. 

His  first  important  public  utterance  on  the  subject  was 
in  his  address  to  the  graduating  class  at  Ogontz  on  "  The 
Higher  Education  of  Women,"  in  June,  1888.^  He  recog- 
nized in  American  life  the  dominating  force  of  the  theory 
that  all  are  born  equal,  that  ours  is  a  government  of  the 
people,  and  that  in  the  course  of  a  few  centuries  the  popu- 
lation of  our  country  will  reach  hundreds  of  millions.  He 
foresaw  both  the  political  and  the  industrial  problems  which 
were  bound  up  with  the  ruling  theory  of  our  institutions.  In 
these  he  realized  that  woman  had  her  part  to  play,  and  his 
keen  analysis  of  human  nature  and  his  unique  capacity  for 
J  deducting  principles  from  scattered  and  apparently  irrelevant 
data  drew  him  irresistibly  to  his  conclusions. 

In  his  own  time  one  of  the  most  conservative  of  profes- 
sions, that  of  medicine,  had  admitted  women,  and  he  was 
not  prepared  to  say  that  the  admission  had  not  been  a  wise 
one.    In  the  Ogontz  address  he  said : 

"  To-day  there  are  in  every  community  of  any  size,  in  America, 
women  pursuing  with  gratifying  success  and  distinction  this  most 
arduous  of  professions.  So  it  has  been  with  one  form  of  occupa- 
tion after  another.  But  still  we  continue  to  hear  from  many 
quarters  and  from  high  authorities  that  the  physical  and  nervous 
peculiarities  of  women  unfit  them  for  higher  education.  Now, 
this  seems  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  questions  that 


^  See  pp.  261-266. 
20  305 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

can  be  raised.  If  they  are  inherent  and  insuperable,  then  it  is 
most  desirable  that  a  general  agreement  should  be  reached  as  to  the 
degree  and  character  of  education  which  should  be  provided  for 
our  girls." 

He  remembered  how  the  medical  men  of  Philadelphia 
had  met  in  solemn  conclave  not  many  years  before  and  re- 
solved that  neither  in  the  interests  of  society  nor  of  science 
nor  of  the  women  themselves  was  it  desirable  that  there 
should  be  female  physicians.  But  this  seemingly  authori- 
tative utterance  did  not  settle  the  business :  public  opinion 
promptly  recognized  the  decision  as  right  so  far  as  it  con- 
cerned co-education  in  medicine,  but  with  equal  promptness 
declared  that  the  demand  for  female  physicians  was  legiti- 
mate; and  admirable  facilities  were  soon  provided  for  the 
separate  medical  education  of  women.  Like  Lincoln,  Dr. 
Pepper  was  responsive  to  public  opinion,  and  he  could  not 
forget  that  the  opinion  of  the  Philadelphia  savants  had  been 
reversed  in  the  higher  court.  Unquestionably  the  approval 
by  the  public  of  the  medical  education  of  women  changed 
all  his  notions  of  the  education  of  women  in  general. 

"  If  girls  did  not  possess  a  physical  development  sufficiently  vig- 
orous for  prolonged  studies,  then,"  said  he,  "  it  seems  evident  that 
the  duty  of  the  hour  was  to  insist  upon  the  establishment  of  these 
conditions  and  upon  the  continuance  of  the  process  until  a  solution 
would  be  reached.  For  my  own  part,  after  extended  observation 
and  study  of  the  method  and  results  of  the  education  of  girls  in 
this  country,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  the  data  do  not 
exist." 

During  the  four  years  following  the  time  of  the  Ogontz 
address  the  number  of  women  attending  the  courses  at  the 

306 


tEt.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

University  rapidly  increased,  and  the  demand  became  stronger 
for  their  admission  into  regular  work  as  candidates  for  degrees. 
Dr.  Pepper  fully  realized  the  meaning  and  force  of  this  de- 
mand, and  omitted  no  opportunity  to  bring  it  to  the  attention 
of  friends  of  the  University.  The  establishment  of  the  Grad- 
uate Department  for  Women  by  Colonel  J.  R.  Bennett,  in 
1892,  was  the  answer  to  this  demand.  From  the  time  of 
this  liberal  foundation  until  his  death  Dr.  Pepper  frequently 
expressed  himself  in  no  uncertain  language  on  the  higher 
education  of  women  and  the  recognition  of  women's  work 
in  society.  From  the  time  of  this  foundation  the  University 
began  to  grant  to  women  the  degrees  of  Master  of  Art  and 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  cursu. 

In  the  bestowal  of  honorary  degrees  it  showed  a  less  lib- 
eral spirit.  It  was  not  until  the  Commencement  of  1894, 
the  last  over  which  Dr.  Pepper  presided,  that  the  University 
conferred  an  honorary  degree  upon  a  woman.  On  that  occa- 
sion Mrs.  Cornelius  Stevenson  was  given  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Science  in  recognition  of  her  public  service  in  the  field 
of  archaeology,  but  the  degree  was  not  given  without  hesita- 
tion. It  was  Dr.  Pepper's  desire  that  Mrs.  Stevenson  should 
receive  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws,  but  the  Trustees, 
unwilling  to  make  this  innovation,  decided  upon  the  Doc- 
torate of  Science  instead.  The  final  decision  was  a  com- 
promise, as  there  was  serious  objection  to  the  bestowal  of 
an  honorary  degree  upon  any  woman.  Happily  the  Board 
decided  not  only  to  ignore  traditions  and  to  recognize  the 
learning  of  Mrs.  Stevenson,  but  to  establish  a  precedent  by 
which  the  literary  and  scientific  claims  of  women  might  be 
recognized  by  the  University  in  all  time  to  come. 

In  August  following  the  Commencement  of  1894  Dr. 
Pepper  again  clearly  expressed   his  views   on   the  woman 

307 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

question.     Mrs.  Stevenson  had  been  called  upon  to  write  on 
the  subject  and  had  asked  Dr.  Pepper  for  his  opinion. 

"  All  you  say  and  ask  as  to  woman's  position  interests  me  pro- 
foundly. I  will  try  to  tell  you  my  thought,  but  I  do  not  trust 
myself.  I  am  going  through  a  series  of  changes  in  attitude  on  so 
many  questions.  Ten  years  ago  I  was  sceptical  as  to  the  large 
share  to  be  played  by  women  in  the  public  and  official  life  of  a 
dominant  nation  ;  now  I  grow  more  and  more  convinced  of  her 
necessity.  As  to  the  individual  question  I  have  never  doubted  that 
the  highest,  most  productive  and  original,  most  comprehensive  life 
work  can  never  be  had  save  when  man  and  woman,  a  man  and  a 
woman  in  perfect  touch  and  trust,  loyalty  and  equality,  lay  hand, 
heart,  and  brain  to  stand  together,  to  sustain,  to  incite,  and  to  guide 
each  other.  I  want  you  to  stand  strong  and  to  speak  clear  and 
loud  for  the  strongest  position  in  this.  It  is  the  policy  of  the 
future.  And  it  is  here  as  in  so  many  points  that  women  must 
lead.  Now  they  seem  to  me  even  more  obstructive  than  men  ; 
more  suspicious  of  their  own  sex ;  more  willing  to  join  in  every 
movement  to  hound  down  any  one  on  the  least  occasion.  But  this 
is  only  a  small  part  of  your  great  subject.  Thank  God,  the  march 
of  legislative  emancipation  goes  on  steadily,  and  we  shall  see,  even 
you  and  I,  progress  made  in  this  supreme  question." 

It  is  hard  to  realize  that  the  man  who  wrote  this  letter 
was  the  same  who  delivered  the  inaugural  of  1881.  We 
are  prone  to  forget  that  a  truly  great  man  is  great  because 
he  changes,  develops,  and  ripens.  Truth  at  last  comes  to 
its  own.  The  greatness  of  Dr.  Pepper  lay  in  his  capacity 
and  willingness  to  learn.  His  colleagues,  or  at  least  most 
of  them,  thought  of  him  only  as  an  aggressive  man  of 
extraordinary  powers,  one  who  conferred  with  them  on  im- 
portant matters  and  then  formed  a  program  apparently  from 
the  results  of  the  conference.     Some  of  them  did  not  con- 

308 


I 


^T.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

sider  him  original,  and  therefore  they  claimed  title  to  much 
of  his  work.  The  more  silent  few,  who  were  intimate  with 
him,  knew  with  what  an  intellectual  force  they  were  dealing. 
It  was  a  force  that  knew  nothing  of  jealousy,  envy,  or  rage. 
It  was  a  force  as  calm  as  sunshine.  In  him  the  elaborative 
faculty  was  developed  to  perfection, — a  faculty  so  much 
needed  upon  which  to  build  a  policy.  Emerson  remarks, 
that  it  is  the  man  who  knows,  however  obscure,  that  holds 
the  attention  of  the  crowd. 

Dr.  Pepper  never  ignored  the  man  who  knows, — however 
humble  his  station  or  fragmentary  his  knowledge,  he  was 
given  a  hearing.  Those  who  remember  Dr.  Pepper  will 
recall  how  frequently  he  asked  them,  "  What  do  you  know 
about  this?  What  are  the  facts  in  brief?"  He  was  the 
embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  learning :  whence  the  profound 
changes  in  his  character  and  knowledge,  to  which  he  refers 
in  the  letter  above.  He  developed  rapidly ;  far  more  rapidly 
than  the  men  about  him,  though  never  did  his  knowledge 
isolate  him.  The  radical  change  which  he  underwent 
respecting  the  place  of  woman  in  society  is  a  fine  illustration 
of  the  process  of  evolution  through  which  he  was  passing 
throughout  life.  He  was  an  observer  and  a  learner  to  the 
end,  and  he  bravely  clung  to  convictions  once  pressed  upon 
him.  Men  differing  from  him  in  degree  rather  than  in  kind 
are  found  in  all  the  conspicuous  walks  of  life.  They  are 
the  captains  of  industry,  the  leaders  in  the  state,  the  pioneers 
in  thought. 

The  guarantee  fund  for  the  establishment  of  the  fourth 
year  in  the  Medical  School,  he  announced  in  1892,  had 
been  secured,  and  he  might  have  added,  almost  wholly  by 
his  own  efforts.  Beginning  with  the  fall  of  that  year  candi- 
dates for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  at  the  University 

309 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

were  required  to  pursue  the  extended  course.  The  require- 
ment did  not  apply  to  those  already  matriculated.  The  next 
expansion,  he  intimated,  would  be  in  the  way  of  enlarged 
buildings,  increased  equipments,  and  a  larger  staff  of  in- 
structors. 

As  on  one  side  the  Institute  of  Hygiene  offered  increased 
facilities  to  the  Medical  Department,  so  on  another  the  newly 
established  Institute  of  Anatomy  promised  to  enrich  it  in  the 
line  of  comparative  anatomy  in  its  widest  sense,  and  to  offer 
opportunities  for  the  most  advanced  post-graduate  and  inves- 
tigative work.  This  new  department  originated  with  Gen- 
eral Isaac  A.  Wistar,  who  at  this  time  proposed  to  erect  a 
fire-proof  building  in  which  to  place  securely  the  historic 
"  Wistar  Museum,"  and  in  which  there  should  be  space  and 
facilities  for  a  vastly  greater  work  in  anatomy  and  its  kindred 
sciences  than  the  Medical  Hall  could  supply.  The  building 
known  as  the  Wistar  Institute  of  Anatomy  was  now  nearing 
completion. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  course  in  the  Dental  De- 
partment had  been  extended  to  three  years,  and  when  the 
change  was  made  it  was  feared  that  the  school  might  for  a 
time  labor  under  adverse  circumstances  owing  to  a  decrease 
in  its  number  of  students.     But  this  fear  was  not  realized. 


"  The  extension  of  the  course  made  many  wants  imperative,  and 
of  these  the  most  urgent,"  said  Dr.  Pepper,  "  was  that  of  a  build- 
ing devoted  to  the  special  work  of  the  school  and  filled  with  all  the 
appliances  needed  for  the  teaching  of  art,  which  has  made  very 
great  development  in  the  last  decade,  and  which  now  demands  the 
highest  professional  and  technical  training  in  its  practitioners ;  and 
the  public  has  not  fully  realized  the  relation  of  modern  dentistry  to 
health  and  even  the  prolongation  of  life." 

310 


JEr.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

The  Faculty  of  the  school,  he  said,  had  reached  a  point 
in  its  development  beyond  which  they  could  not  go  without 
assistance.  To  stand  still  meant  to  fall  below  other  leading 
dental  schools.  He  was  confident  that  if  proper  facilities 
were  provided  "  there  need  be  no  fear  that  the  department 
would  not  creditably  maintain  itself  from  its  current  receipts." 

From  the  Veterinary  School  and  Hospital  came  one 
equally  gratifying  account  of  increase  both  in  the  number 
of  students  and  in  the  public  interest.  The  School  and 
Hospital  represented  a  profession  which  had  yet  to  make 
its  way  to  full  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  public.  Thor- 
ough training  of  veterinary  practitioners  would  be  impos- 
sible without  the  clinical  advantages  of  an  extensive  hos- 
pital. The  Veterinary  Hospital  had  already  become  a  great 
charity,  and  during  the  year  closing  had  treated  more  than 
fifteen  hundred  dumb  animals  without  charge  to  their  owners. 
As  the  maintenance  of  this  educational  and  charitable  work 
was  impossible  without  generous  assistance,  he  again  made 
public  recognition  of  the  support  which  the  late  Mr.  J.  B. 
Lippincott  had  given,  and  which  the  family  had  continued. 
In  1889  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  made  an  appropri- 
ation for  the  school,  of  which  only  one-half  was  available 
through  lack  of  public  funds.  The  city  had  received  a  full 
return  for  this  appropriation  in  the  scholarships  which  the 
Board  of  Trustees  had  placed  at  its  disposal.  At  this  time 
(1892)  the  Legislature  was  considering  the  means  for  making 
the  remaining  half  of  the  appropriation  available. 

The  report  from  the  Law  Department  was  gratifying.  Its 
enrolled  students  had  greatly  increased  in  numbers,  and  it 
was  enjoying  a  high  degree  of  prosperity,  as  was  evidenced 
by  the  character  and  attainments  of  its  classes.  In  memory 
of  the  late  Algernon   Sydney  Biddle  his  family  had  estab- 

3n 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

lished  a  Fellowship  and  set  a  valuable  prize  for  the  stimula- 
tion of  earnest  work  in  the  school.  Dr.  Pepper  equally 
foresaw  the  growth  of  this  department  and  its  imperative 
need  of  larger  accommodation  in  the  near  future.  With 
characteristic  sagacity  he  observed :  "  It  might  be  a  wise 
economy  to  secure  a  suitable  site  before  the  demands  become 
imperative  and  in  advance  of  almost  certain  increase  in  the 
cost  of  property  with  each  succeeding  year."  At  this  time 
it  was  generally  thought  that  the  Law  School  should  be  per- 
manently located  on  some  down-town  site,  preferably  not 
far  from  the  Girard  Trust  Building,  in  which  it  then  housed. 
As  yet  the  University  possessed  no  suitable  gymnasium. 
That  there  should  be  one,  he  thought,  was  indisputable ; 
but  the  question  was  open  to  discussion  whether  it  should  be 
a  distinct  building  or  be  a  part  of  a  students'  hall.  At  this 
time  there  was  no  building  on  the  University  premises  or 
near  them  which  could  be  utilized  by  the  students  freely  for 
social  purposes. 

"  The  fact  that  among  our  two  thousand  students  there  is  a  large 
proportion  from  abroad,"  said  he,  "  whose  domestic  life  for  three 
or  four  years  is  limited  to  the  meagre  accommodations  of  neces- 
sarily low-priced  boarding-houses,  with  the  cruel  exposure,  the 
various  temptations  which  this  involves.  The  need  of  harmo- 
nizing, refining,  and  of  moral  not  less  than  of  religious  influences 
during  this  critical  period  of  their  lives,  all  plead  for  such  a  home 
centre  in  the  University  life  as  is  represented  in  many  colleges  by 
handsome,  well-equipped  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  halls. 
The  acceptance  of  some  general  plan  for  a  social  building  did  not 
necessarily  involve  either  the  name  or  the  limitations  of  that  asso- 
ciation. In  fact,  it  would  seem  wiser  and  more  consonant  with 
the  traditions  of  the  University  to  avoid  both,  and  to  aim  at  the 
construction  and  equipment  of  a  building  which  would  afford  rooms 

312 


I 


JEt.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

for  all  religious  organizations  among  the  students, — in  fact,  that 
would  tend  to  make  up  for  the  absence  of  a  refined  home  and  to 
allure  from  haunts  of  vice  and  dissipation." 

The  students  of  the  University  had  already  begun  a  sub- 
scription for  such  a  building,  and  had  received  large  acqui- 
sitions from  the  friends  of  the  enterprise  outside. 

"  We  confidently  hope,"  concluded  he,  "  that  the  next  report 
will  announce  the  completion  and  use  of  a  building  which  will 
represent  in  the  fullest  manner  the  University's  idea  of  what  the 
life  of  her  sons  should  be." 

Closely  connected  with  this  subject  was  one  still  unsettled 
at  the  time, — that  of  dormitories.  A  general  plan  of  a  build- 
ing had  been  made,  but  for  certain  reasons  the  matter  had 
progressed  no  further. 

"  The  demand,"  he  said,  "  for  such  an  accommodation  for  our 
students  is  steadily  growing,  and  more  and  more  is  endorsed  by 
members  of  the  Faculties  and  others  who  are  most  intimately  in 
contact  with  them  and  best  acquainted  with  their  needs.  Much 
that  I  have  said  in  regard  to  a  students'  hall  applies  also  to  a  dor- 
mitory. But  in  addition  is  the  serious  argument  as  to  the  danger 
to  health  to  which  our  students  are  too  often  exposed  in  places 
which  they  are  forced  to  inhabit.  There  is  no  more  healthful  sit- 
uation than  that  occupied  by  the  University  and  the  properties 
adjacent  to  it.  But,  unfortunately,  many  of  the  residences  in  its 
neighborhood,  having  been  built  by  speculators  about  the  time  of 
the  Centennial,  upon  ground  not  properly  prepared  and  in  the 
cheapest  possible  manner,  the  original  defects  of  construction  have 
become  more  serious  by  the  lapse  of  time,  and  are  a  constant 
menace  to  the  health  of  the  occupants.  From  a  medical  stand- 
point I  cannot  overrate  the  importance  of  strict  hygienic  conditions 
in  the  apartments  in  which  the  hours  of  study  and  of  sleep  are 

2^3 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

passed,  and  I  cannot  feel  that  our  students  are  cared  for  as  they 
should  be  until  there  are  within  their  reach  apartments  which  we 
know  to  be  wholesome  in  construction  and  surroundings,  and  which 
can  be  kept  so  by  a  vigilant  supervision  on  the  part  of  our  own 
authorities." 

The  University  Lecture  Association — which,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, he  originated — was  now  no  longer  an  experiment, 
but  year  by  year  pursued  its  interesting  work  and  offered  to 
the  public  and  to  the  University  a  course  of  the  highest 
educational  value  by  the  best  lecturers  obtainable  at  home 
or  abroad.  Among  these  were  some  whose  presence  on  the 
platform  could  not  be  secured  by  any  pecuniary  inducement, 
but  whose  love  for  the  University  and  regard  for  the  earnest 
men  and  women  who  in  this  way  were  securing  its  advance- 
ment induced  them  to  give  to  its  students  and  to  the  com- 
munity the  choicest  fruits  of  their  ripe  and  cultured  learning. 

Of  the  Archaeological  Association  and  the  Department  of 
Archaeology  and  Paleontology  he  said  at  this  time  substan- 
tially what  is  now  well  known  of  its  prosperity,  its  notable 
collections,  and  the  almost  incredible  public  interest  which  it 
had  awakened.^  So  great  had  been  the  increase  in  its  col- 
lections, he  announced,  that  unless  speedy  relief  was  given 
by  the  erection  of  a  museum  building  there  would  be  no 
space  for  them  except  in  boxes  in  the  basement  of  the 
Library. 

"  You  have  agreed,"  said  he,  "  to  provide  a  site  for  the  museum. 
It  remans  for  those  who  can  appreciate  the  educational  value  of  the 
actual    and    tangible    monuments    of    archaeology    and    ethnology, 


^  For  his  connection  with  this  Department  and  its  history,  see 
Part  III.,  Chapter  IV. 

314 


^T.  49]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

grouped  in  great  collections  and  cared  for  by  zealous  curators,  to 
find  the  means  for  the  erection  of  such  a  building  as  may  safely 
and  worthily  enshrine  them." 

The  Columbian  Exposition  invited  American  educational 
institutions  to  exhibit  their  work.  This,  at  best,  was  a  diffi- 
cult undertaking,  for,  as  Dr.  Pepper  said,  much  of  the  work 
of  a  university  is  incapable  of  visible  representation.  But 
Pennsylvania  was  exceptionally  well-prepared  to  make  a 
notable  exhibit.  Out  of  the  treasures  of  its  museum  in  the 
Department  of  Archaeology  and  Paleontology  it  was  not 
difficult  to  select  collections  which  were  not  mere  posses- 
sions, but  were  the  actual  results  of  enterprises  and  expedi- 
tions which  the  University  had  undertaken  and  carried  to  a 
successful  end.  These,  it  was  believed,  would  form  an  attrac- 
tive exhibit.  The  invitation  of  the  Columbian  Exposition 
was  accepted  and  the  University  exhibit  was  displayed  to 
distinct  advantage.^  This  display  proved  to  be  the  nucleus 
of  notable  accessions  and  was  in  every  way  commendable. 

The  bibliography  of  the  Faculty  of  the  University  for  the 
three  years  ending  October  i,  1892,  consisting  of  forty-eight 
closely-printed  pages,  was  proof  alike  of  the  loyalty  and 
labors  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty-five  professors,  lec- 
turers, and  instructors  who  at  this  time  constituted  its  teach- 
ing body. 

The  inauguration  of  the  four  years'  medical  course  at 
the  University,  October  2,  1893,  was  made  notable  by  an 
address  by  Dr.  Pepper  on  the  same  subject  which  he  had 

^  It  was  in  charge  of  Mr.  E.  W.  Mumford,  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  its  expense  was  defrayed  by  special 
funds  raised  by  Provost  Pepper.  See  Mr.  Mumford's  report,  Ap- 
pendix v.,  in  Provost's  Report  for  June,  1894. 

31S 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

taken  sixteen  years  before  on  a  similar  epoch-making  occa- 
sion :  "  Higher  Medical  Education  the  True  Interest  of 
the  Public  and  of  the  Profession."^  The  address  consti- 
tutes a  chapter  in  the  history  of  American  medicine.  In 
1877  he  had  urged  important  reforms,  of  which  the  chief 
were  a  preparatory  examination  for  entrance  upon  medical 
studies ;  the  lengthening  of  the  annual  term  ;  the  grading 
of  the  course;  clinical  and  laboratory  instruction  for  the 
student ;  and  the  establishment  of  fixed  salaries  for  the  pro- 
fessors in  place  of  the  old  system  of  fees.  Since  1877  these 
reforms  had  been  introduced  at  the  University.  The  exten- 
sion of  the  course  to  four  years  and  all  that  it  implied  was 
essentially  no  more  than  working  them  out.  No  physician 
in  the  country  had  done  more  to  secure  them  than  had  Dr. 
Pepper.  His  inaugural  in  1893,  therefore,  could  well  be 
made  historical  and  record  the  work  which  had  been  done 
at  the  University.  The  burden  of  this  appealing  address 
was  a  more  adequate  professional  preparation  as  the  true 
response  to  the  true  interest  of  the  public  and  the  profes- 
sion. The  address  has  less  of  novelty  than  that  delivered  in 
1877,  for  the  aspirations  of  that  year  had  now  become  the 
custom  and  practice  of  the  University. 

For  several  years  he  had  been  exerting  his  influence  to 
have  Congress  establish  a  National  University.  In  associa- 
tion with  Senator  George  F.  Edmunds,  he  had  made  direct 


^  Higher  Medical  Education  the  True  Interest  of  the  Public  and 
of  the  Profession.  Inaugural  Address  at  the  Opening  of  the  Four 
Years'  Course  of  the  Medical  Study  in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, October  2,  1893,  ^Y  William  Pepper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Pro- 
vost and  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine. 
Reprinted  from  the  University  Medical  Magazine.      16  pp. 

316 


JEt.  50]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

personal  appeals  to  leading  public  men,  had  tried  to  win  the 
active  help  of  prominent  educators  and  men  like  Mr.  Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt,  whose  influence  might  lead  to  the  founding 
of  such  an  institution.  He  found  the  South  and  West 
favorable,  but  New  England  and  the  East  generally  unfavor- 
able. 

In  spite  of  an  active  and  powerful  lobby,  which  defeated 
the  bill,  though  the  ablest  members  of  both  Houses  of  Con- 
gress were  in  favor  of  the  measure,  Dr.  Pepper  continued  his 
efforts  up  to  a  short  time  before  his  death. 

An  estimate  of  the  probable  effect  of  his  "  giant's  strength," 
if  exerted  for  the  founding  of  a  National  University,  is  con- 
tained in  a  letter  from  the  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education  : 

("In  Keene,  Essex  County,  N.  Y., 
"till  August  8th.) 

"  Department  of  the  Interior, 

"  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington, 

"  Aug.  7,  '94. 

"  I  write  just  a  line  to  say  that  I  have  received  the  two  letters 
sent  by  you,  but  have  been  in  my  retreat  at  the  mountains  (the  Ad- 
irondacks)  laying  by  a  month  for  repairs,  and  they  have  remained 
unanswered  because  I  have  not  been  fit  for  business.  But  I  am  de- 
lighted that  you  have  brought  your  giant's  strength  to  the  enterprise 
of  founding  a  National  University  at  Washington.  I  shall  give  my 
earliest  attention  to  the  contents  of  your  letters  on  my  return  next 
Monday.      I  wrote  to  my  private  secretary  to  forward  you  the  bill 

and  pamphlet  published  by  the  Senate. 

"W.  T.  Harris."* 

Another  letter  from  Dr.  Harris  throws  light  on  Dr.  Pep- 
per's plans  for  organizing  public  sentiment  in  support  of  the 

University : 

'  MS. 

317 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

"  Department  of  the  Interior, 

"  Bureau  of  Education, 
"Washington,  D.  C,  October  5,  1894 

"  I  hope  you  have  not  attributed  my  delay  in  writing  to  you  to 
any  discourtesy  of  mine.  On  my  return  to  Washington  in  the 
middle  of  August  I  found  myself  in  a  very  malarious  atmosphere, 
and  as  I  am  subject  to  its  influence  (in  fact  I  left  the  Mississippi 
Valley  fourteen  years  ago  because  I  could  not  live  in  a  malarious 
climate),  I  have  been  confined  to  my  house  most  of  the  time  since, 
and  only  able  to  do  the  signing  of  letters  and  vouchers  at  the  Bureau, 
staying  only  two  hours  or  so  each  day  at  my  desk.  In  consequence 
of  this  all  personal  correspondence  of  any  importance  has  been 
neglected,  simply  for  the  reason  of  my  feebleness. 

"  I  have  read  your  letters  as  they  came,  but  have  not  been  able  to 
give  advice.  The  subject  is  one  of  deep  interest,  but  it  is  a  very 
delicate  subject,  and  missteps  cannot  be  afforded.  On  the  whole 
I  am  of  the  opinion  that  you  did  well  to  postpone  the  conference. 
Such  a  conference  will  be  a  good  thing,  but  had  perhaps  better 
come  in  the  spring  than  in  the  fall.  And,  as  you  intimate  in  your 
last  note,  it  would  be  a  great  setback  to  invite  a  conference  which 
decided  by  a  formal  vote  adversely  to  such  a  university.  It  would 
be  best  first  by  a  wide  correspondence,  it  seems  to  me,  to  secure  a 
goodly  number  of  working  friends  to  the  cause,  then  one  could  call 
a  conference  with  the  assurance  that  he  called  a  majority  of  persons 
friendly  to  the  cause.  I  should  suggest  that  one  of  the  circle  of 
friends  should  be  formed  from  members  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion and  the  several  government  bureaus,  taking  persons  employed 
as  scientific  experts.  Another  circle  could  be  recruited  from  presi- 
dents and  professors  of  State  and  agricultural  universities.  They 
would  favor  it  just  simply  because  they  wish  to  strengthen  the  tie 
that  binds  them  to  federal  support.  In  the  next  place  I  think  you 
are  right  in  supposing  the  State  superintendents  of  public  instruc- 
tion over  the  country  will  be  favorable  to  a  National  University, 
also  city  superintendents  generally,  because  being  public  officers  and 
having  public  education  at  the  expense  of  the  government  at  heart 

318 


JEt.  51]  THE   UNIVERSITY 

they  will  see  in  a  National  University  something  that  dignifies  and 
strengthens  their  function. 

"  Did  you  see  the  quotation  from  my  address  on  the  subject  of  a 
National  University  copied  in  the  pamphlet  printed  by  order  of  the 
Senate  ?  My  secretary  assures  me  that  he  mailed  you  a  copy  in 
August.  Why  would  it  not  be  a  good  thing  to  form  a  society 
whose  object  shall  be  the  promotion  of  the  cause  of  a  National 
University  ?  Have  a  small  fee  of  one  dollar  monthly  for  the  pay- 
ment of  expenses,  or  a  larger  fee,  if  you  were  to  employ  a  perma- 
nent worker  or  secretary  ? 

"  W.  T.  Harris. 

"  P.  S. — I  return  to  you  a  paper  suggesting  your  plan.  Am  sorry 
that  I  did  not  notice  before  that  it  was  marked  '  to  be  returned.'  "  ^ 

Dr.  Pepper's  "  plan"  for  a  National  University,  to  which 
the  Commissioner  refers  above,  was  as  follows : 

"UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 

OFFICE    OF    THE    PROVOST. 

"  1st.  It  is  proposed  that  the  name  shall  be  the  University  of  the 
United  States  (for  National  University  at  Washington). 

"  2nd.  The  University  shall  be  devoted  exclusively  to  instruction 
of  advanced  grade,  such  as  is  represented  by  post-graduate  work. 

"  3rd.  The  requirements  for  admission  shall  be  the  Bachelor's 
degree  in  Arts  or  Science  (A.B.  or  B.S.)  from  accredited  institu- 
tions ;  though,  in  the  case  of  applicants  without  such  degree,  a 
grade  preparation  equivalent  thereto  in  the  judgment  of  the  pro- 
fessors in  charge  of  the  proposed  course  may  be  accepted. 

"No  degree  lower  than  the  Doctorate  shall  be  conferred, — e.g.^ 
Ph.D. 

"  There  shall  be  no  restriction  as  to  sex,  sect,  race,  or  color. 


»  MS.,  October  5,  1894. 
319 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

"  As  the  grade  of  instruction  will  be  so  high,  and  it  is  proposed 
to  take  advantage  of  the  existing  facilities  of  the  Government  at 
Washington,  such  as  the  Library  of  Congress  and  the  various  scien- 
tific collections,  etc.,  it  is  not  expected  that  any  great  outlay  will  be 
required  for  extensive  grounds  or  costly  buildings.  No  dormitories 
will  be  required.  It  is  suggested  that  University  Square  might  serve 
as  a  site.  (Old  Naval  Observatory.  See  page  7,  Hooker's  Bill, 
H.  R.,  10,489,  Fifty-second  Congress.) 

"  The  government  of  the  University  shall  be  vested  in  a  Board 
of  Regents  (see  Hooker's  Bill  as  to  appointing  power),  one  member 
chosen  from  each  State,  and  the  following  members  ex-officio : 

"  The  President  of  the  United  States  (who  shall  be  President  of 
the  University  ?).  Of  course  the  acting  head  of  the  University 
would  be  some  experienced  educator  who  would  give  his  whole 
time  to  the  work. 

"  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

"  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  (who  shall  be  Vice-President 
of  the  University  ?). 

"  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

"  The  Members  of  the  Cabinet. 

"  The  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

"  The  Commissioner  of  Education. 

"  The  quorum  shall  be  twenty-five. 

"  The  Board  of  Regents  shall  meet  at  least  once  yearly,  in  the 
City  of  Washington,  D.  C,  and  at  such  other  times  as  their  regu- 
lations may  direct. 

"  The  Board  of  Regents  may  appoint  an  executive  committee 
from  among  its  own  members  with  such  administrative  powers  as 
may  be  deemed  expedient  to  entrust. 

"  The  Board  of  Regents  shall  establish  general  regulations  for 
conducting  the  operations  of  the  University ;  shall  provide  for  the 
appointment  of  such  officers  of  administration  and  instruction  as  it 
shall  from  time  to  time  deem  necessary ;  and  shall  fix  the  com- 
pensation thereto,  subject  to  the  limitations  hereinafter  provided. 

320 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  (Don't  involve  in  debt.) 

"  The  tenure  of  office  for  the  Regents  shall  be  six  (6)  years. 
They  shall  be  divided  by  lot  into  three  classes,  to  serve  respectively 
for  two,  four,  and  six  years ;  vacancies  to  be  filled  by  the  same 
appointing  authority. 

"  (Define  more  fully  the  power  of  Regents  as  to  scope  of 
University.) 

"  The  Regents  shall  establish  fellowships,  in  number  corre- 
sponding to  the  funds  available  for  that  purpose  from  year  to  year. 
These  fellowships  shall  be  distributed  among  the  various  States  and 
Territories  as  nearly  as  practicable  according  to  the  population. 

"  Foreign  fellowships  may  be  established  in  such  numbers  and  on 
such  terms  as  the  Board  of  Regents  may  determine. 

"  In  addition  to  the  (prize)  fellowships,  which  will  carry  free 
tuition  and  also  a  stipend  for  maintenance,  the  Regents  shall  also 
provide  in  such  manner  and  on  such  terms  as  may  be  deemed  expe- 
dient for  the  admission  of  fellows  or  advanced  students,  who  shall 
pay  the  tuition  fees  established  and  shall  receive  no  stipend  for 
maintenance. 

"  The  Board  of  Regents  shall  have  power  to  receive  gifts,  de- 
vises, and  bequests ;  but  no  sectarian  foundation  shall  ever  be 
established. 

"An  appropriation  of  ^^500, 000. 

"  An  endowment  of  ;^5,ooo,ooo  at  five  per  cent. 

"(Insert  Section  19  and  Section  20  of  Ingalls'  Bill,  S.  846, 
Forty-ninth  Congress.)"  ^ 

After  his  retirement  from  the  Provostship  he  appeared  be- 
fore the  House  Committee  on  Education  in  support  of  a  bill 
then  pending  to  establish  the  University  of  the  United  States. 
He  said : 

'  MS. 
21  321 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

"  The  question  might  naturally  be  put,  why  is  there  not  already 
a  National  University  at  Washington  ?  instead  of,  what  are  the 
reasons  for  such  a  foundation  ?  The  leading  countries  of  the  world  | 
have  seen  to  it  with  great  care  and  liberality  that  at  the  capital  of  | 
the  nation  there  should  be  a  university,  so  that  national  treasures,  ^ 
in  the  way  of  art  galleries,  libraries,  scientific  collections,  and 
laboratories,  might  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  higher  education. 
The  failure  to  develop  such  a  teaching  university  in  London  may 
be  quoted  as  the  exception,  whose  unfortunate  results  prove  the 
wisdom  of  the  rule. 

"  My  interest  in  this  question  is  not  new.  Although  I  have  de- 
voted my  life  to  the  service  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  to 
aid,  so  far  as  my  strength  permitted,  in  the  work  of  building  up  that 
institution,  I  have  long  felt  the  importance  of  a  National  University 
in  Washington.  Even  while  I  was  Provost,  and  straining  every 
nerve  to  aid  the  development  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
I  advocated  the  passage  of  a  bill  similar  to  the  one  before  you.  I 
acted  then  purely  in  a  personal  capacity,  and,  of  course,  what  I 
express  now  is  in  no  way  official  or  representative,  but  simply  my 
personal  conviction  of  the  need  of  a  great  university  in  this  city. 
So  far  from  interfering  with  the  prosperity  and  growth  of  collegiate 
institutions  in  other  places,  it  would  strengthen  them.  It  is  under- 
stood that,  as  provided  in  this  bill,  the  National  University  would  be 
exclusively  for  advanced  work  of  post-graduate  grade.  It  would 
not  compete  with  other  institutions  for  undergraduate  students.  So 
far  from  interfering  with  post-graduate  studies  at  other  universities 
it  would  secure  a  fuller  recognition  of  the  necessity  for  more  ample 
provision  for  such  studies  at  every  institution  prepared  to  conduct 
them. 

*'  What  is  the  number  of  fellowships  open  to-day  to  students  de- 
siring advanced  instruction  ?  A  few  hundred  at  the  outside.  How 
many  thousands  of  earnest  students,  who  have  in  many  cases  ex- 
hausted their  resources  in  securing  the  ordinary  collegiate  education, 
would  gladly  pursue  advanced  studies  to  fit  them  for  higher  work  as 

322 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

teachers  or  writers  or  investigators,  if  such  opportunities  existed  in 
this  country  ?  Each  great  university,  it  is  presumable,  vv^ill  always 
offer  advantages  for  advanced  work  in  some  special  lines.  The  es- 
tablishment of  a  National  University  at  Washington,  to  utilize  the 
vast  educational  resources  of  the  capital,  would  surely  stimulate 
activity  in  the  field  of  advanced  study  at  each  and  every  institution 
so  situated  as  properly  to  conduct  such  studies.  Each  university 
finds  itself  forced  to  build  up,  at  large  expense,  a  good  library  ;  it 
seeks  original  manuscripts  and  documents  ;  it  must  enter  upon  ex- 
plorations and  develop  a  museum  ;  laboratories  must  be  equipped 
and  maintained,  and  great  sums  are  needed  for  these  purposes. 
After  all  is  done  it  must  remain  impossible  to  compete  with  the 
resources  of  the  National  government.  Washington  has  already  the 
material  for  the  greatest  university  in  the  land  :  the  richest  libraries, 
the  most  extensive  collections,  numerous  well-equipped  laboratories, 
departments  which  are  practically  organized  for  original  research. 

"  The  bill  now  under  consideration  would  secure  the  co-ordina- 
tion of  all  these  rich  facilities  and  utilize  them  for  the  benefit  of 
higher  education.  It  calls  for  no  great  expenditure  for  land  or 
buildings.  Endowment  and  buildings  will  be  needed  as  the  work 
develops,  but  to  no  great  extent  commensurate  with  the  work  done, 
for  so  large  a  part  of  this  work  will  always  be  accomplished  by  util- 
izing the  educational  facilities  which  now  exist  here,  and  which 
must  inevitably  become  more  and  more  expensive,  whether  co-ordi- 
nated in  one  great  national  educational  work  or  left  to  be  the  cov- 
eted prize  of  a  dozen  rival  denominational  colleges.  In  all  religious 
questions  I  revere  the  sincerity  of  individual  belief,  and  admire  the 
energy  of  denominational  zeal,  but  in  educational  matters  I  would 
protest  against  the  admission  of  the  denominational  spirit.  Either 
the  proposed  bill  will  become  law,  and  give  to  the  country  a  truly 
federal  and  national  institution,  free  from  political  and  sectarian  in- 
fluence, or  the  educational  resources  and  prestige  of  the  capital  will 
become  more  and  more  the  object  of  injurious  rivalry  among  many 
competing,  denominational  institutions. 

323 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

"  This  bill,  it  is  believed,  does  secure  for  the  proposed  university 
a  high  degree  of  protection  from  political  influence.  While  its 
finances  are  intrusted  to  a  small  body  of  regents,  all  educational 
questions — the  courses  to  be  established,  the  conditions  of  admis- 
sion, the  character  of  examination,  the  degrees  to  be  conferred,  and, 
above  all,  the  appointment  of  professors  and  instructors — are  dele- 
gated to  the  university  council,  a  large  majority  of  whose  members 
are  to  be  practical  educators,  pre-eminently  concerned  in  maintain- 
ing the  highest  standards  and  in  preserving  the  greatest  purity  in 
educational  methods. 

"  It  is  no  question  of  mere  academic  interest  which  is  urged  on 
your  consideration.  It  is  an  affair  of  the  highest  practical  impor- 
tance. It  concerns  vitally  the  future  of  education  in  America.  It 
aims  to  confer  upon  Washington,  the  capital  of  this  people  of  mar- 
vellous destiny,  inspirations  of  a  system  of  higher  education  worthy 
of  such  a  nation."  ' 

It  is  difficult  to  portray  a  man  whose  life  was  so  multifa- 
rious as  Dr.  Pepper's.  For  nearly  thirty  years  he  had  been 
toiling,  with  energy  almost  superhuman,  to  advance  medical 
science,  to  extend  the  educational  opportunities  in  Philadel- 
phia, to  promote  the  public  welfare  by  giving  his  life  to  life's 
best  things.  But  the  physical  strain  had  been  intense,  even  to 
the  danger  point.  The  situation  is  depicted  in  a  pathetic  note 
which  he  sent  to  Dr.  Tyson  on  the  2  2d  of  April : 

"  The  winter's  work  has  been  so  hard  that  I  cannot  bring  myself 
to  face  another  like  it.  Everything  is  in  good  shape,  and  I  purpose, 
therefore,  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot  to-morrow,  and  want  you  to  have 
early  information  of  it. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

u  w.  P." 

^  Senate  Report,  No.  429,  March  10,  1896,  54th  Congress,  ist 
Session,  pp.  22,  23,  January  23,  1896. 

324 


^T.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

For  several  years  he  had  been  contemplating  resigning  the 
office  of  Provost,  and  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  held  on  Monday,  April  23,  1894,  he  "  cut  the  knot" 
by  communicating  his  resignation,  at  the  same  time  making  a 
gift  of  $50,000,  to  be  applied  to  the  extension  of  the  Hos- 
pital buildings. 

"  With  deep  thankfulness,"  said  he,  "  I  recognize  that  the  Uni- 
versity has  reached  a  stage  of  development  and  prosperity  which 
justifies  me  in  laying  down  the  high  office  you  intrusted  to  me  more 
than  thirteen  years  ago,  and  which  I  have  held  as  long  as  it  was 
possible  to  combine  the  administrative  labors  of  Provost  with  the 
demands  of  medical  teaching  and  practice.  This  time  has  now 
passed,  and  I  beg  therefore  to  tender  my  resignation  to  take  effect 
after  the  coming  Commencement. 

"  The  close  of  the  current  session  will  witness  the  completion 
of  the  formative  period  of  the  University.  From  a  group  of  dis- 
connected schools  there  has  been  gradually  organized  a  great  aca- 
demic body,  complete  in  its  unity  and  instinct  with  varied  yet 
harmonious  activities.  Mutual  confidence  and  co-operation  have 
developed  a  system  strong  enough  for  eff^ective  central  control,  yet 
so  flexible  as  to  admit  affiliation  with  many  separate  organizations. 

"  To  our  University  is  due  the  credit  of  establishing  university 
extension  in  America,  yet  the  important  and  successful  society 
which  controls  this  movement  has  no  organic  relation  with  the  Uni- 
versity, save  that  the  Provost  is  ex-officio  the  Honorary  President. 
The  Wistar  Institute  of  Anatomy  and  Biology,  a  magnificent  me- 
morial of  the  founder  of  American  anatomy,  has  a  separate  charter 
and  is  not  owned  by  the  University,  yet  it  is  governed  by  a  Board 
the  majority  of  whose  members  are  appointed  by  yourselves.  The 
University  Hospital,  which  has  grown  so  prosperously,  is  a  special 
trust,  administered  by  a  Board  of  twenty-two  members,  only  four  of 
whom  are  appointed  by  the  Trustees  of  the  University. 

"  The  Department  of  Archaeology  and  Paleontology,  under  whose 

325 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

energetic  operations  there  is  developing  rapidly  a  Museum  of  high 
rank,  is  governed  by  a  Board  of  not  less  than  thirty-six  members, 
of  whom  only  six  are  appointed  by  the  Trustees  of  the  University. 
Reference  is  made  to  these  familiar  instances  to  illustrate  the  ad- 
mirable results  which  may  develop  under  a  system  which  excludes 
rigid  control  and  rests  upon  mutual  confidence  and  a  common 
devotion  to  a  great  cause. 

"  It  has  been  the  chief  aim  of  your  Board  to  demonstrate  to  the 
people  of  this  great  Commonwealth  that  the  University  is  truly  the 
voluntary  association  of  all  persons  and  of  all  agencies  who  wish 
to  unite  in  work  for  the  elevation  of  society  by  the  pursuit  and 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  truth.  No  less  important  has  been  the 
establishment  of  the  principle  that  the  University,  so  far  from  being 
a  private  and  exclusive  corporation,  is  essentially  and  originally  a 
part  of  the  municipality.  The  large  future  of  the  University  was 
secured  when,  in  1872  and  in  1883,  City  Councils  voted,  without 
a  dissenting  voice,  the  transfer  to  the  University  of  splendid  tracts 
of  ground  in  consideration  of  the  establishment  in  perpetuity  of 
fifty  free  beds  in  the  Hospital  for  the  poor  of  Philadelphia,  and  of 
fifty  prize  scholarships  in  the  College,  to  be  awarded  to  graduates 
of  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia.  The  subsequent  accessions 
of  territory  which  have  brought  the  domain  of  the  University  up 
to  fifty-two  acres,  in  a  compact  body  in  the  centre  of  the  city,  have 
been  the  logical  consequences  of  these  great  steps ;  and  so  faithfully 
have  all  the  trusts  and  conditions  been  executed,  that  it  has  come  to 
be  recognized  by  the  municipal  authorities  that  it  is  more  profitable 
to  the  city  to  give  freely  to  the  University  anything  in  its  power  to 
bestow  which  is  needed  for  the  development  of  that  institution  than 
to  dispose  of  it  elsewhere  even  at  a  great  price.  It  needs  only  the 
resolute  continuance  of  this  wise  policy  to  secure  for  the  University 
full  recognition  as  a  branch  of  the  City  government  with  a  duly 
accredited  representative  of  its  great  constituency  in  her  Councils. 

"  Progress  has  also  been  made  towards  the  establishment  of  the 
essential  principle  that  the  University  is  in  right,  and  should  be  in 

326 


JE.T.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

fact,  the  head  of  the  educational  system  of  the  entire  Common- 
wealth. We  may  fairly  claim  to  have  done  much  towards  securing 
a  recognition  of  the  view  that  the  encouragement  of  higher  educa- 
tion, by  the  municipality  and  the  legislature,  is  as  proper  and  im- 
portant in  the  older  communities  of  America  as  it  has  been  decided 
to  be  in  the  newer  States. 

"  While  the  unification  of  the  University  and  the  establishment 
of  broad  lines  of  policy  may  seem  to  be  the  most  important  work 
of  the  past  thirteen  years,  it  will  be  found  that  the  resources  of  the 
University  and  the  educational  work  in  each  department  have  been 
successfully  promoted.  In  1881  its  property  was  fifteen  acres, 
while  at  present  there  are  owned  or  controlled  by  the  University,  in 
a  continuous  tract  and  solely  for  educational  purposes,  not  less  than 
fifty-two  acres.  The  value  of  the  lands,  buildings,  and  endowment 
in  1881  may  be  estimated  at  ;^i,6oo,ooo  ;  it  is  now  over  ;^5,ooo,ooo. 
Prior  to  the  date  of  the  late  John  Henry  Towne's  great  bequest, 
the  University  had  never  received  a  single  large  gift  or  legacy. 
During  the  current  year  ending  September  i,  1894,  there  will  be 
acquired  in  lands,  buildings,  money,  and  subscriptions  not  less  than 
1^1,000,000.  The  members  of  the  teaching  force  in  1881  num- 
bered 88,  and  the  students  in  all  departments  981  ;  at  this  time  the 
former  are  268  and  the  attendance  has  reached  2180,  representing 
every  State  of  the  Union  and  no  less  than  thirty-eight  foreign 
countries.  The  College  Department  has  attained  a  national  dis- 
tinction, and  its  complete  re-organization,  which  has  now  been 
accomplished  successfully,  gives  sure  promise  of  sound  and  rapid 
progress.  The  Medical  School  has  been  advanced  to  pre-eminence 
in  equipment  and  prosperity,  while  plans  now  maturing  will  place 
it  abreast  of  the  great  schools  of  Europe.  The  Law  School  has 
effected  the  prolongation  and  elevation  of  its  curriculum,  and  has 
deservedly  won  national  repute.  Encouraging  progress  has  been 
made  towards  providing  an  admirable  building  on  an  approved  site, 
so  that  the  future  eminence  of  the  school  is  assured.  Gratifying 
reports  may  be  made  of  the  position  of  the  Dental  and  Veterinary 

327 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

Departments,  and  well-considered  plans  for  their  still  further 
development  need  only  time  for  their  fulfillment.  Upon  this 
vigorous  basis  rests  the  Department  of  Philosophy,  which  although 
organized  as  late  as  1884,  and  still  without  special  endowment,  has 
already  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  students.  It  represents  the 
University  in  its  highest  and  best  intellectual  life ;  it  affords  inspira- 
tion to  teachers  and  students  ;  it  has  enabled  us  to  extend  the  richest 
privileges  of  the  University  to  women  on  equal  terms  with  men ; 
it  points  the  way  to  large  endowment  of  rich  research  and  advanced 
scholarship. 

*'  The  necessity  of  dormitories  to  the  development  of  the  best 
University  life  has  come  to  be  clearly  recognized  by  your  Board, 
and  generous  friends  stand  ready  to  supply  this  important  need. 

"  It  is  pleasant,  in  these  days  of  strength  and  prosperity,  to  reflect 
upon  those  of  doubt  and  struggle,  when  ridicule  met  the  assertion, 
the  truth  of  which  is  now  freely  conceded,  that  nowhere  can  a  great 
university  be  developed  so  favorably  as  in  a  great  city. 

"  In  closing  my  term  of  service  as  Provost  I  may  be  permitted  to 
allude  to  the  motives  which  impel  me  to  this  step.  The  labor  of 
these  thirteen  years  has  been  so  severe,  in  connection  with  my 
professional  duties  in  the  Medical  School  and  with  the  extensive 
medical  practice  necessary  to  provide  the  funds  which  have  enabled 
me  to  initiate  nearly  all  the  large  movements  undertaken  during  this 
time,  that  I  have  often  felt  that  my  life  was  specially  preserved  for 
the  work.  It  has,  however,  been  growing  evident,  for  several  years 
past,  that  the  time  was  approaching  when  the  immense  extent  of 
the  University  interests  would  demand  the  undivided  activity  of  the 
most  energetic  man.  It  has  now  become  necessary  for  me  to  choose 
between  administrative  work  and  medical  science.  My  devotion 
to  the  latter  has  determined  the  choice. 

"  No  official  has  ever  been  associated  with  more  affectionate  and 
indulgent  colleagues  or  has  enjoyed  more  loyal  co-operation  than 
has  been  extended  to  me.  I  am  confident  that  the  choice  of  my 
successor  will  be  wisely  and  promptly  made.      I  do  not  leave  the 

328 


.Et.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

service  of  the  University,  but  will  remain,  with  more  free  hands, 
ready  to  serve  her  every  interest  with  utmost  devotion. 

"  I  invoke  upon  your  continued  labors  in  the  government  of  this 
grand  institution  the  richest  blessings  of  Almighty  God,  who  has  in 
the  past  so  signally  guarded  it. 

"  William  Pepper."  ' 

Commenting  on  this  letter,  the  Medical  News  remarked  : 

"  To  those  who  have  had  any  adequate  conception  of  the 
enormous  labor,  physical  and  mental,  carried  on  during  the  past 
thirteen  years  by  Provost  Pepper  in  connection  with  his  duties  as 
physician,  professor,  and  chief  administrative  officer  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  it  has  seemed  simply  marvellous  that  the 
human  organism  could  endure  such  a  strain.   .   .   . 

"  It  is  with  a  wholly  justifiable  and  honorable  pride  that  Dr. 
Pepper,  in  his  letter  of  resignation,  recounts  the  splendid  progress 
made  by  the  University  during  the  time  of  his  administration. 
Surely  the  gratitude  of  the  institution,  of  Philadelphia,  of  the  State, 
nay,  of  education,  is  due  him  for  a  devotion  and  self-sacrifice 
rarely  if  ever  equalled ;  and  to  these  the  profession  of  medicine 
adds  a  most  hearty  tribute  of  appreciation  and  of  pride  in  the 
achievements  and  honors  of  one  of  its  members." 

News  of  his  resignation  quickly  spread  and  called  forth 
expressions  of  regret  from  all  quarters.  The  letters  which 
he  received  would,  if  printed,  make  a  small  volume. 

One  eminent  man  wrote, — 

"  If  at  any  time  in  the  future  our  city  is  to  become  a  real  seat 
of  learning,  a  Mecca  for  those  who  devote  themselves  to  a  studious 
and  intellectual  career,  it  is  to  you  more  than  any  other  person  of 
this  generation,  that  we  shall  owe  the  boon." 


^  Circular,  4  pp. 
329 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

Another  wrote, — 

"  The  cause  of  higher  education  in  this  country  will  ever  be 
indebted  to  you  for  the  impetus  you  have  given  it  and  for  the  results 
you  have  achieved,  which  far  outstrip  in  their  influence  the  magnifi- 
cent progress  that  is  recorded  in  the  University  over  which  you 
have  presided  for  the  past  thirteen  years." 

"  It  has  been  a  subject  of  astonishment,"  wrote  a  third,  "  that 
you  have  been  able  to  do  so  much  while  pursuing  an  active  and 
increasing  profession." 

"  I  have  probably  heard,"  wrote  a  distinguished  University  Presi- 
dent, "  of  each  step  forward  as  it  has  been  taken,  but  as  I  look  back 
upon  the  distance  marched  during  that  period  the  record  is  sur- 
prising. You  can  certainly  lay  down  the  responsibilities  of  a  leader 
with  the  consciousness  that  the  University  has  grown  wonderfully 
during  your  administration.  It  needed  such  help  and  stimulus  as 
you  alone  could  give." 

The  resignation  was  formally  accepted  by  the  Trustees, 
who  at  the  same  time  decreed  that  the  honorary  degree  ot 
Doctor  of  Laws  should  be  conferred  on  him  at  the  ensuing 
Commencement.  One  of  their  number,  Horace  Howard 
Furness,  LL.D.,  was  requested  to  make  an  address  on  that 
occasion,  "  expressive  of  the  views  of  the  Board  in  regard  to 
the  services  of  the  Provost  and  of  their  regret  at  his  retire- 
ment from  the  office  which  he  has  filled  with  distinction  and 
efficiency  unexampled  in  the  annals  of  the  University." 

Some  time  before  the  announcement  of  his  resignation  a 
movement  had  been  set  on  foot  to  honor  him  with  peculiar 
distinction.  It  was  proposed  to  present  a  bust  of  him  to  the 
University  with  proper  ceremony  at  the  next  Commence- 
ment. The  movement  originated  among  a  number  of  his 
devoted  friends,  but  it  met  with  so  much  favor  that  it  was 
decided  to  give  it  a  wider  scope  and  to  include  in  its  sup- 

330 


yET.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

port  representatives  of  the  different  Departments  of  the  Uni- 
versity. The  result  of  this  decision  was  the  formation,  on  the 
day  of  his  resignation,  of  a  WiUiam  Pepper  Testimonial 
Committee,^  which  adopted  and  proceeded  to  execute  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions : 

"  That  in  view  of  Dr.  Pepper's  long  and  untiring  services  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  University  and  to  the  cause  of  higher  education, 
and  in  view  of  the  large  share  which  his  personal  effort  has  had  in 
placing  the  Institution  where  it  now  stands  before  the  eyes  of  the 
country,  a  bronze  statue  of  himself,  by  Carl  Bitter,  be  presented 
by  us — his  co-workers — to  the  University  as  an  adequate  expres- 
sion of  our  appreciation,  and  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  call 
upon  the  chairman  of  Finance  and  Property  (of  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees) to  apply  for  a  suitable  site  whereupon  it  can  be  erected."  ^ 

Commencement  Week,  which  began  Thursday,  May  31, 
was  unusually  brilliant  and  interesting.^ 


^  President,  Mr.  Charlemagne  Tower,  Jr. ;  Secretary,  Mrs.  Cor- 
nelius Stevenson  ;  Treasurer,  Rev.  J.  Y.  Burk. 

-  Circular  Note,  May  15,  1894,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

^  It  opened  with  the  annual  Commencement  exercises  of  the  Ze- 
iosophic  Society  in  the  College  Chapel  on  the  first  day.  On  Friday 
evening,  June  i,  in  the  same  place,  occurred  the  annual  Junior 
Oratorical  competition  for  the  Alumni  prize ;  on  Saturday,  about 
the  same  hour,  was  the  Sophomore  cremation  on  the  University 
Athletic  Grounds  ;  the  Baccalaureate  Sermon  for  the  University  was 
preached  by  Rev.  D.  McConnell,  D.D.,  in  Association  Hall,  Fif- 
teenth and  Chestnut  Streets,  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  the  3d  of 
June.^     At  the  Chestnut  Street  Opera  House,  on  Monday,  the  4th, 


'  The  preacher's  text  was,  "  And  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all 
understanding,  shall  keep  your  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus." 
Philippians,  iv.  7. 

331 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

At  the  close  of  the  Commencement  exercises  on  Thurs- 
day, the  7th,  over  which  the  Governor  of  the  Common- 


at  ten  a.m.,  occurred  the  Class-Day  exercises,  and  in  the  afternoon 
the  Athletic  sports  on  the  ground  at  Thirty-seventh  and  Spruce 
Streets ;  in  the  evening  the  Ivy  was  planted  w^ith  ceremony  of 
oration,  poem,  and  song ;  at  nine  o'clock  the  University  dance 
opened  in  the  University  Pavilion.  Early  in  the  morning  of  Tues- 
day, the  5th,  there  began  to  assemble  on  the  campus  those  who 
were  to  form  the  University  procession  :  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  escorted  by  his  Staff  and  the  First  Troop  of  Philadelphia 
City  Cavalry,  and  the  Mayor  of  the  city  by  his  officials,  who,  with 
the  Provost  and  the  Trustees  of  the  University,  the  Faculties  and  stu- 
dents of  all  Departments,  then  proceeded  over  the  usual  route  to  the 
Academy  of  Music,  where,  at  eleven  o'clock,  were  held  the  annual 
Commencement  exercises  marking  the  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
fourth  year  of  the  University's  life.  In  the  evening,  at  the  Univer- 
sity Library,  there  assembled,  according  to  annual  custom,  the 
Alumni  of  the  College  Department,  who  partook  of  a  collation,  and 
an  hour  later  the  Philomathean  Society  gave  its  annual  exercises  in 
the  College  Chapel. 

On  Wednesday,  the  6th,  Alumni  Day,  there  was  a  general  re- 
union of  the  graduates  of  all  Departments  on  the  University 
campus,  and  a  statue  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  presented  by  the  man- 
agers of  the  Columbian  Exposition,  was  formally  given  to  the  Uni- 
versity, the  oration  on  this  occasion  being  by  Russell  Duane,  Esq., 
'91  Law,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Dr.  Franklin,^    At  midday  occurred 


^  This  statue  had  a  curious  fate.  It  was  the  colossal  staiF-cast  which  stood 
beneath  the  portal  of  the  Electricity  Building  at  the  Chicago  Columbian 
Exposition,  and  represented  Dr.  Franklin  flying  his  historic  kite.  Professor 
Thorpe  had  written  to  Dr.  Pepper  about  it  and  aroused  in  him  a  desire  to 
possess  it  for  the  University.  To  both  it  seemed  as  though  it  must  in  time 
acquire  value  from  the  fact  of  its  association  with  the  Chicago  celebration, 
and  that  it  would  be  worth  while  to  have  it  cast  in  bronze  and  placed  on  the 

332 


Mr.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

wealth,  Honorable  Robert  E.  Pattison,  presided,  Dr.  Horace 
Howard  Fumess,  complying  with  the  request  of  his  co-Trus- 
tees, and  also  complying  with  the  request  of  the  Testimonial 
Committee  that  he  present  the  bust  of  Dr.  Pepper  to  the 
Trustees,  delivered  the  following  address : 

"  The  Trustees,  whom    I    have  the   honor  to   represent,  have 
deemed  it  fitting,  on  this  memorable  day,  when  a  chapter  of  the 

the  June  meeting  of  the  Alumni  in  the  University  Library,  followed 
by  a  collation.  On  this  day  also  occurred  the  annual  reunion  of 
the  Society  of  the  Alumni  of  the  Department  of  Dentistry  ;  a  base- 
ball game  at  the  University  grounds ;  the  Commencement  dinner 
tendered  by  the  Dental  Faculty  to  the  graduating  class ;  the  per- 
formance of  "  King  Arthur"  by  the  Mask  and  Wig  Club  of  the 
University  at  the  Chestnut  Street  Opera  House,  and  the  Banquet  of 
the  Alumni  Society  of  the  Medical  Department.  On  Thursday, 
the  7th,  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  occurred  the  Commencement 
of  the  Medical,  Dental,  and  Veterinary  Schools,  with  conferring  of 
degrees  ;  and  in  the  afternoon,  at  the  University  Library,  the  exer- 
cises of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society ;  the  introductory  address  was 
given  by  the  venerable  President,  the  Rev.  William  H.  Furness, 
D.D.,  and  the  oration  by  Hampton  L.  Carson,  Esq.  ('91). 

campus.  Dr.  Pepper  at  once  wrote  urgently  to  Mrs.  Cornelius  Stevenson, 
begging  her  to  do  all  in  her  power  to  induce  the  management  to  present  the 
statue  to  the  University.  Such  was  Dr.  Pepper's  desire,  that  he  obtained 
letters  from  the  Mayor  of  Philadelphia  and  the  Governor  of  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  to  bring  additional  pressure  to  bear,  Mrs.  Stevenson,  however, 
had  secured  the  coveted  prize  before  these  letters  reached  her.  The  statue 
was  brought  to  Philadelphia  at  considerable  expense,  and  under  the  super- 
vision of  Professor  Laird  was  erected  on  the  campus  near  the  Library,  where 
it  remained  for  some  months.  As  it  threatened  to  fall  into  decay,  it  was 
taken  down,  at  Dr.  Pepper's  request,  and  stored.  Some  time  afterwards  Dr. 
Pepper  made  inqumes  concerning  its  safe-keeping,  with  the  view  of  having  it 
cast  in  bronze,  but  received  the  unwelcome  intelligence  that  the  statue's  head 
had  disappeared. 

333 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

University's  history  is  about  to  be  closed,  that  some  note  be  made 
of  the  University's  present  position,  and  of  the  influences  which 
have  guided  it  thereto. 

"  The  simplest  and  most  natural  way  of  estimating  our  height  is 
to  recall  the  level  whence  we  sprung.  Be  not  terrified.  I'll  not 
retreat  into  the  '  dark  backward  and  abysm  of  time,'  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four  years,  to  the  day  when  this  University  was  founded, 
but  ask  you  to  go  with  me  in  your  memory  no  further  than  in  the 
year  1881,  and,  imagining  ourselves  within  the  wooden  enclosure 
which  then  surrounded  the  University,  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
College  buildings.  (It  needn't  be  a  very  large  bird — I  think  a 
sparrow  will  do.)  We  see  the  College  Hall,  the  Medical  and 
Dental  Laboratory,  and  a  little  further  off,  the  half-sized  University 
Hospital.  In  all,  four  buildings,  standing  on  a  plot  of  about  fifteen 
and  a  half  acres.  Within  these  buildings,  one  of  which  holds  the 
modest  library  of  20,000  volumes,  forty-four  professors  and  in- 
structors teach  Latin,  Greek,  Mathematics,  French,  German, 
Music,  Medicine,  Dentistry,  and  Law,  to  nine  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  students,  of  whom  by  far  the  larger  number  are  in  the  Medical 
Department,  but  all  of  them  hungry  after  knowledge,  and  the  pro- 
fessors have  hard  work  to  keep  their  little  gaping  mouths  well 
filled. 

"  This  was  the  University  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  ago,  sedate, 
conservative,  respectable  ;  quiescent  in  the  belief  that  the  methods 
of  education  which  were  wholesome  for  the  fathers  must  be  whole- 
some and  all-sufficient  for  the  sons  and  grandsons.  Then  came  a 
revival  of  interest  in  education,  sweeping  like  a  wind  over  Europe, 
and  reaching  these  shores.  In  one  of  the  eddies,  accelerated,  it 
may  be,  by  the  rush  of  the  nations  through  our  Centennial  town, 
our  dear  old  University  was  caught,  and  lifting  her  serene  eyes, 
she  too  pleaded  for  a  wider  range  of  usefulness  and  a  larger  recog- 
nition. 

"  The  Provost  at  that  time  had  accomplished  a  fine  task,  and 
had  guided  the  University  from  its  dingy,  somnolent  rooms  in  the 

334 


i^T.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

heart  of  the  city  to  these  new  halls  on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill ; 
but  the  voice  of  his  early  love  still  charmed  him,  that  voice  from 
whose  accents  he  had  learned  '  How  a  Free  People  conduct  a  Long 
War,'  and  under  whose  inspiration  he  had  sent  this  knowledge  forth 
to  fill  with  renewed  energy  and  with  exhilarating  hope  the  hearts 
of  the  whole  North,  from  Lincoln  in  the  Presidential  chair  down 
to  the  armed  citizens  in  the  ranks. 

"  The  summons  of  this  voice  to  those  fair  but  neglected  fields 
of  historical  research  Provost  Stille  could  not  disobey,  and  from 
those  fields,  as  we  are  all  proud  to  know,  he  has  since  then  gar- 
nered fruits  and  harvests  which  have  placed  his  name  high  among 
the  historians  of  the  land. 

"  And  so  we  had  to  find  a  new  Provost. 

"  Do  you  think  that  an  easy  task  ?  Bethink  you, — what  are  the 
qualities  which  hope  bade  us  find  somewhere  or  other  embodied  in 
one  man  ?  Our  ideal  Provost  had  to  be  a  man  of  marked  individ- 
uality (a  quality  predestined  to  hostile  criticism) ;  a  man  of  admin- 
istrative ability  (which  is  sure  to  collide  with  indolent  inertia — the 
besetting  sin  of  students) ;  a  man  of  firm  will ;  able  to  read  the 
future  in  the  instant ;  of  consummate  tact ;  and  above  all  he  must 
be  vigilant  to  discern  in  the  educational  heavens  the  signs  of  the 
time.  Lastly,  our  ideal  Provost,  while  he  need  not  of  necessity  be 
an  anatomist,  must  nevertheless  know,  to  the  extremest  nicety,  the 
exact  location  in  every  man's  body  of  the  pocket-book  nerve — that 
nerve  of  the  keenest  sensibility  in  the  whole  system,  and  our  ideal 
Provost  must  know  when,  and  where,  and  how  to  touch  this  nerve 
so  as  to  excite  the  largest  reflex  action. 

"  Do  you  think  such  Provosts  are  as  plenty  as  blackberries  ? 

"  What  an  anxious  time  it  was,  in  those  far-ofF  days  !  Number- 
less were  the  candidates  whose  fitness  was  discussed.  I  remember 
I  was  deputed,  when  in  Boston,  to  sound  the  Reverend  Phillips 
Brooks,  and  on  two  diff^erent  days  I  pleaded  with  him.  To  him 
whose  love  for  young  men  was  commensurate  only  with  his  power 
over  them,  the  temptation  to  accept  the  office  of  Provost  here  was, 

335 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

as  he  repeatedly  said,  very  great  -,  at  one  time  I  was  filled  with 
hope,  but  at  the  last  he  decided  that,  dearly  as  he  loved  Philadelphia, 
the  clearer  vision  forbade  him  to  desert  his  Boston  parish. 

"  You  all  know  where  our  choice,  our  happy  choice,  at  last  fell, 
thirteen  years  ago.  Would  you  know  how  happy  that  choice  has 
proved,  lift  your  eyes  and  mark  :  In  addition  to  the  four  buildings 
which  we  saw  thirteen  years  ago,  we  now  see  a  Library,  as  a  build- 
ing one  of  the  finest  and  best  equipped  in  the  land,  holding  within 
its  fire-proof  walls  120,000  bound  volumes,  and  already  becoming 
the  nucleus  of  pleasant  college  memories ;  we  see  an  Electrical 
Laboratory,  where  the  thunderbolt,  which  the  founder  of  this  Uni- 
versity snatched  from  the  skies,  is  reclaimed  from  the  wild  zigzag 
courses  of  its  youth,  and,  while  teaching  us  how  to  control  it,  is 
itself  taught  decorum  and  sobriety  and  how  to  earn  its  living — or  if 
not  '  its'  living,  it  is  taught  to  earn  ours,  which  is  better ;  we  see  a 
large  Central  Light  and  Heat  Station  ;  we  see  a  Veterinary  Building 
with  its  long  row  of  pathetic  hospital  stalls — I  say  '  pathetic'  be- 
cause in  them  stand  the  patient,  disabled  breadwinners  of  many 
and  many  a  poor  household,  to  which,  by  the  best  skill  of  this 
beneficent  institution,  they  are  restored,  when  possible,  sound  and 
ready  for  renewed  gain-giving  toil ;  behind  this  long,  low  build- 
ing we  see  the  pretty,  cottage-like  Hospital  with  its  piazzas  and 
verandahs,  where,  for  that  most  faithful  friend  of  man,  the  dog, 
every  canine  comfort  is  provided  in  his  ailments,  and  where  physic 
is  gently  administered,  and  not  brutally  thrown  to  him  as  Macbeth 
prescribes  (but  what  else  could  we  expect  from  that  wicked  tyrant  ? 
Ah,  what  profound  lessons  Shakespeare  teaches  !  In  that  tragedy 
he  shows  us  that  when  once  a  man  has  entered  on  the  downward 
path  by  murdering  his  king  he  goes  from  bad  to  worse  until  at  last 
he  will  not  scruple  to  recommend  that  physic  be  thrown  to  the 
dogs  !  We  always  administer  it  at  the  Veterinary  gently,  with  a 
spoon — and  plenty  of  it.)  Beyond  the  Veterinary  Building  stands 
the  Biological  Building,  into  whose  admirable  museums  and  attrac- 
tive lecture   rooms  who   can  enter  without  wishing  to  '  call   back 

236 


JEr.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

yesterday,  bid  Time  return,'  that,  once  more  a  youth,  he  can  there 
drink  thirsty  drafts  of  the  knowledge  of  Life  in  its  Protean  forms  ? 
We  note  a  spacious  wing  added  to  the  Hospital,  almost  doubling  its 
size,  and  near  by,  a  delightful,  attractive  Home  for  Nurses  where, 
during  the  hours  when  they  are  not  watching  by  the  bed  of  pain, 
all  the  comfort  and  seclusion  of  a  home  are  provided  for  those 
white-robed  ministrants  of  mercy ;  and  on  the  other  side  two 
Maternity  Hospitals;  behind  them  all,  the  Mortuary,  complete 
with  every  appliance  suggested  by  modern  skill  and  experience ;  on 
the  right  is  the  Wistar  Institute  of  Anatomy,  that  fine  institution, 
unparalleled,  I  believe,  in  this  country,  devoted  solely  to  original 
research,  whence  will  issue,  in  coming  years,  solutions  of  Nature's 
mysteries  of  inestimable  benefit  to  mankind ;  and  on  the  left  the 
homelike  residence  devoted  to  the  accommodation  of  the  young 
women  attending  the  professional  schools ;  beyond  is  the  Hygienic 
Laboratory,  where  microbes  and  bacilli  are  challenged  and  made  to 
stand  and  deliver,  and  where  we  learn  that  the  true  Battle  of  Life 
is  fought  in  our  veins  and  arteries ;  and,  still  further  on,  is  the 
Laboratory  of  Chemistry,  that  fascinating  science  the  sum  of  whose 
formulas  must  have  been  in  the  Creative  Mind  when  the  morning 
stars  sang  together  and  Eternity  became  time.  In  addition  we  see 
a  Dining  Hall,  and  the  Athletic  Grounds,  whereon,  to  make  the 
balance  true  between  all  departments,  the  worship  of  brain  is 
counterpoised  by  the  worship  of  brawn. 

.  *'  Thus  much  for  the  mere  buildings,  which  now  number  twenty 
in  all,  five  times  as  many  as  we  saw  in  1881,  while  the  College 
grounds  have  expanded  to  fifty-two  acres,  as  against  the  former 
fifteen  and  a  half. 

"  If  we  turn  to  the  list  of  professors  and  instructors,  we  find 
that  there  are  six  times  as  many  now  as  there  were  thirteen  years 
ago.  Our  last  catalogue  shows  that  they  now  number  two  hundred 
and  sixty-eight,  and  the  number  of  students  has  more  than  doubled. 
There  are  now  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty, — cormorants 
for  knowledge  who  are  eminently  successful  in  keeping  their  pro- 
22  327 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

fessors  from  falling  into  mischief  which  Satan  finds  for  idle  hands 
to  do. 

"  If  we  compare  the  value  of  the  property  of  all  kinds  held  by 
the  University  in  1881  with  that  it  now  holds,  we  shall  find  the 
same  noteworthy  increase.  In  that  year,  in  round  numbers,  it  was 
sixteen  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  is  estimated  in  this  present 
year  to  be,  also  in  round  numbers,  five  millions  of  dollars.  As- 
suredly a  mighty  sum  !  and  assuredly  a  meagre  pittance  !  At  this 
hour  the  University  is  poor,  wretchedly  poor,  and  she  would  still 
be  poverty  stricken,  let  us  fervently  hope,  if  she  had  fifty  millions, 
instead  of  five.  When  any  institution,  as  has  been  said,  needs  no 
more  money,  its  hour  of  usefulness  has  struck,  its  life  has  departed, 
and  it  had  better  close  its  gates.  Every  appeal  for  money  which 
the  University  makes  is  the  birth-cry  of  a  new  department  which 
will  widen  its  resources,  extend  its  educational  power,  and  enable 
it  to  answer  the  needs  of  the  day.  Expansion  means  life,  and  life 
means  growth,  and  growth  means  money.  Spell  '  growth'  as  you 
please,  according  to  the  good  old  fashion,  or  according  to  the  re- 
formed spelling,  '  groth,'  but  in  our  University  parlance  it  must  be 
always  pronounced  '  money.'  Never,  therefore,  as  you  love  the 
dear  old  University,  think  that  its  cries  for  help  will  ever,  ever 
cease.  In  that  hour  when  it  says  it  has  enough,  oh,  then  be  sure 
to  say  the  University  is  dead. 

"  In  additional  proof  of  the  University's  growth  during  the 
last  decade  let  me  enumerate  the  Departments  which  have  been 
instituted,  and  not  merely  instituted,  but  welded  into  one  organic 
whole,  in  itself  a  noteworthy  achievement.  The  mere  titles  are 
sufficient.  To  give  a  full  description  of  each  one,  describing  its 
scope,  its  success,  the  exactness  with  which  it  fills  any  educational 
need,  would  outweary  patience.^ 


^  "  I  do  not  give  them  chronologically  in  the  order  of  their  estab- 
lishment, but  they  are ; 

338 


.«T.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  Auxiliary  to   these   departments,  and   enlarging   those   already- 
established,  the  courses  in   Mechanical  Engineering,  in   Civil  En- 


"  The  Wharton  School  of  Finance  and  Economy, 

"  The  Biological  Department, 

"  The  Department  of  Philosophy, 

"  The  Department  of  Physical  Education, 

"  The  Veterinary  Department, 

"  The  Auxiliary  Department  in  Medicine, 

"  The  Training  School  for  Nurses, 

"  The  Post-Graduate  Course  in  Law, 

"  The  University  Library, 

"  The  Graduate  Department  for  Women, 

"  The  Biddle  Law  Library, 

"  The  Department  of  Archaeology  and  of  Paleontology, 

"  The  Department  of  Hygiene, 

"  The  Semitic  Department  and  of  Assyriology, 

"  The  Department  of  American  History, 

"  The  Department  of  Architecture, 

"  The  Wistar  Institute  of  Anatomy  and  Biology. 

"Among  the  Departments  established  in  1891  was  the  School  of 
American  History  and  Institutions.  '  For  some  time  previous  to 
this  date,'  said  Dr.  Pepper,  in  his  report,  *■  Professor  Francis  N. 
Thorpe,  then  Lecturer  in  American  History,  had  been  quietly 
collecting,  through  the  liberality  of  a  few  interested  individuals,  a 
valuable  library  in  American  History,  comprising  almost  a  complete 
set  of  the  records  of  the  National  Government,  Laws  of  States  and 
Territories,  State  Records  and  Municipal  Ordinances,  now  amount- 
ing to  about  thirteen  thousand  volumes.  With  this  as  the  basis  of 
instruction  and  research,  the  scheme  for  a  school  in  this  important 
line  of  study  was  carefully  elaborated  and  placed  in  charge  of  John 
B.  MacMaster,  Professor  of  American  History,  and  fVancis  N. 
Thorpe,  Professor  of  American  Constitutional  History.  The  actual 
work  of  the  school  began  in  October,  1892.     The  idea  of  such  a 

339 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

gineering,  in  Chemistry,  in  Architecture,  and  in  the  Wharton  School 
have  been  extended  to  four  years. 

"  The  Law  Course  and  the  Dental  Course,  from  two  years  have 
been  enlarged  to  three  years,  and  the  Medical  to  four  years. 

*'  Probably  no  statement  can  show  more  concisely  or  more 
strikingly  the  expansion  of  the  University  than  the  fact  that  in 
1 88 1  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  courses  of  study  open 
to  students,  and  that  there  are  now,  under  the  elective  system,  six 
hundred. 


school  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Thorpe  at  the  time  preparations  were 
being  made  for  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  There  seemed  reasonable  hope 
at  that  time  that  the  interest  in  American  history  which  this  and 
other  centennials  then  impending  would  probably  arouse  might 
prepare  the  way  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  such  a 
school.  At  first  no  more  was  planned  than  to  secure  the  endow- 
ment of  fellowships  in  American  history,  but  the  response  of  friends 
to  the  movement  seemed  to  assure  the  execution  of  a  larger  plan. 
For  a  time  there  seemed  little  doubt  that  an  adequate  endowment 
might  be  secured,  but  sickness,  disaster,  and  death  among  the  friends 
of  the  movement  prevented  the  fulfillment  of  this  hope.  The 
Library  was  the  fruit  of  much  personal  sacrifice.  At  the  time  that 
its  collection  began,  the  material  in  the  University  for  the  study  of 
American  history  was  fragmentary  and  limited.  It  was  thought 
that,  through  the  liberality  of  friends,  a  practically  complete  library 
in  American  history  might  be  acquired.  Duplication  of  material  to 
be  found  in  other  libraries  in  the  city,  and  especially  that  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  was  carefully  avoided.  At  a  critical 
time  in  the  progress  of  the  work  one  of  its  friends,  who  had  prom- 
ised it  large  pecuniary  assistance,  failed,  and  it  was  found  necessary 
to  make  new  arrangements.  Ultimately  the  amount  due  under  the 
contracts  which  had  been  made  was  raised  and  the  books  paid  for. 
The  period  of  their  collection  covered  six  years.' 

340 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  Furthermore,  in  pursuance  of  a  far-sighted  policy,  the  Provost 
has  gathered  around  the  University  certain  groups  of  earnest  men 
and  women  who,  under  the  University's  sanction  and  encourage- 
ment, carry  on,  with  no  tax  on  our  overburdened  finances,  the 
University's  work,  be  it  in  accumulating  museums,  or  in  providing 
lectures,  supervising  hospitals,  etc. 

"  Nor  should  those  fine  publications  be  forgotten  which  our 
professors  from  time  to  time  send  forth  under  the  University's 
imprimatur,  carrying  to  the  wide  world  of  letters  at  home  and 
abroad  the  proofs  of  exact  and  refined  scholarship  and  research. 

"  Nay,  in  answer  to  our  knockings  the  centuries  buried  beneath 
the  sandy  plains  of  Nippur  have  awakened  to  tell  across  the  ages 
the  old,  old  story  of  human  life. 

"  Here,  at  last  (not  by  co-education,  though, — Heaven  save  the 
mark  !),  women  have  the  chance  to  prove  what  we  have  all  along 
known  in  our  secret,  envious  hearts  to  be  the  truth :  their  intel- 
lectual superiority  to  men,  and  that  Nature's  law  is  that  finer,  fairer 
clay  clothes  finer  minds. 

"  Moreover,  as  the  whole  country  cannot  come  to  the  University, 
our  Provost  has  been  foremost  in  extending  the  resources  of  the 
whole  University  to  the  country. 

"  Indeed,  we  have  not  rested  in  letting  scholarships  alone  extend 
our  fame ;  have  we  not  enlisted  the  animal  kingdom  ?  Birds, 
beasts,  and  reptiles  have  flown,  hopped,  skipped,  and  jumped  in 
every  phase  of  animal  locomotion  through  the  capitals  of  Europe 
and  the  palaces  of  the  kings  ;  and  every  one  of  them  labeled  : 
'  University  of  Pennsylvania.' 

"  And  that  we  might  not  hide  our  light  under  a  bushel,  displays 
and  specimens  of  our  work  have  been  sent  to  the  international 
exhibitions  in  New  Orleans,  in  Madrid,  and  in  Chicago. 

"  As  an  outgrowth  of  the  present  time,  the  prophetic  eye  sees, 
added  to  the  Hospital,  another  wing,  devoted  to  children  and  to 
surgery,  and  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  our  idolized  Agnew. 

"  Furthermore,  in  that  same  prophetic  vision,  there  rises,  as  an 

341 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

extension  of  the  Hospital,  a  Pathological  Laboratory  built  by  Pro- 
vost Pepper  as  a  filial  and  enduring  memorial  of  his  father,  who 
was  once  the  honored  incumbent  of  the  chair  of  the  Theory  and 
Practice  of  Medicine  now  held  by  his  son. 

"  These  are  some  of  the  outward  and  visible  expressions  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  as  it  stands  to-day.  But  are  they  The 
University  ?  '  Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make,'  nor  do  they 
make  a  university.  We  may  cover  acres  with  buildings  filled  with 
every  appliance  for  tuition,  and  yet  they  may  all  be  dead  and  as  un- 
productive of  any  good  to  the  world,  as  unresponsive  to  any  intel- 
lectual need  of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  are  the  monastic  cells  in  the 
desert  of  the  Thebaid.  A  university,  in  this  country,  should  be 
not  only  a  place  of  instruction  or  of  original  research,  but  should 
be  something  more  :  it  should  be  a  centre  whence,  not  merely  by 
the  annual  graduating  classes  but  through  the  active  enthusiasm  of 
its  Faculties,  an  intellectual  life  shall  be  diffused  far  and  wide.  And 
if,  happily,  the  university  be  placed  in  a  vast  city,  as  here,  its 
influence  should  be  discernible  throughout  the  whole  educational 
system  of  that  city.  It  should  be  the  summit  of  a  '  starry-pointed 
pyramid'  composed  of  the  multitudinous  schools  of  the  Common- 
wealth. To  attain  this  exalted  position,  in  which  every  citizen 
should  take  pride,  the  University  must  be  brought  into  close  rela- 
tions to  the  civic  government,  and  in  the  City  Councils  and  State 
Legislatures  it  should  have  duly  elected  representatives.  All  this 
the  prophetic  eye  sees  steadily  approaching. 

"  Within  its  own  walls,  however,  its  first  endeavor  is  not  to  turn 
out  deep  thinkers  or  leaders  in  politics  or  in  the  arts,  any  more  than 
it  is  the  object  of  a  cook  to  make  fat  men.  Leadership  will  come 
in  the  fulness  of  time  to  those  of  its  graduates  who  are  leaders  By 
the  Grace  of  God.  As  well  might  we  demand  of  our  Professors  of 
Finance  that  they  should  turn  out  every  year  a  whole  class  of  mil- 
lionaires. Nay,  on  the  Johnsonian,  burlesque  principle  that  '  who 
drives  fat  oxen  should  himself  be  fat,'  we  might  demand  that  these 
professors  should  themselves  be  the  very  wealthiest  of  men.     (In- 

342 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

deed,  I  wish  they  were  !)  What  a  University  can  attempt  with  any 
hope  of  success,  is  to  make  an  already  keen  love  of  knowledge 
keener,  and  to  teach  the  average  young  man  how  to  assimilate  books. 
It  can  teach  how  to  study,  how  to  think,  and  in  the  professional 
schools,  how  to  mine  knowledge, — in  short,  how  to  begin  life.  To 
demand  of  it  that  it  should  make  of  young  men  leaders  or  im- 
part extraordinary  proficiency  in  any  direction  is  to  ask  to  put  old 
heads  on  young  shoulders,  an  experiment  destined  to  turn  out  as  dis- 
astrously as  Bottom's  experience  in  '  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream.' 
It  should  be  a  training  school  for  every  faculty  with  which  nature 
has  endowed  us.  Every  pathway  should  be  made  a  thoroughfare  to 
that  intellectual,  supernal  plain  where,  as  Milton  says,  all  is  '  so 
smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of  goodly  prospect  and  melodious  sounds 
on  every  side.'  After  the  University's  work  is  done,  and  its  stu- 
dents have  been  led  forth  (in  its  true  derivative  sense  educated)  from 
the  darkness  of  ignorance,  all  future  careers,  whether  as  leaders  or 
as  followers,  or  as  mere  nonentities,  must  be  left  to  circumstances, 
and  to  that  formula  on  which  every  man's  temperament  is  based. 

"  But  in  order  to  accomplish  this  work,  in  order  to  open  these 
pathways,  the  University's  resources  must  be  as  complete  as  possi- 
ble, and  supplemented  by  a  close  correspondence  with  the  times. 
It  must  lie,  '  all  Danae  to  the  stars,'  receptive  to  all  good  influ- 
ences. And,  thus  receptive,  thus  responsive,  thus  obedient  to  its 
duty  to  students,  there  will  thence  ensue  a  beneficent  power  on  the 
community  at  large ;  and  while  seeming  to  lead  it  will  in  reality 
follow. 

*  As  unto  the  bow  the  cord  is. 
So  unto  the  man  is  woman  : 
Though  she  bends  him,  she  obeys  him  ; 
Though  she  draws  him,  yet  she  follows.' 

"  This  should  be  the  relationship  of  the  University  to  the  world 
around  it.  Though  it  leads  the  intellectual  thought  of  the  day,  it 
really  follows  it ;  though  it  seems  to  give  the  watchword,  it  gives  in 
reality  the  reply. 

343 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

"  Has  our  University  reached  this  standard,  and  not  only  does 
this  tie  bind  it  to  the  Commonwealth,  but  is  there  in  all  its  fair 
buildings  and  in  its  thronged  lecture  rooms  the  quickening,  inform- 
ing life  which  yields  vitality  to  every  scion  of  learning  budded  on  it  ? 
Have  there  from  this  casket  of  erudition  shone  forth  the  sparkling 
rays  which  attract  to  it  the  admiration  and  the  pride  of  men,  far  and 
wide  ?  Is  it  dear  to  every  young  soul  as  the  spring  where  the  con- 
suming thirst  for  knowledge  may  be  slaked  ?  Do  men  and  women 
of  mature  years  look  to  it  as  the  focus,  the  hearthstone,  of  that  fire 
which  is  to  warm  into  activity  all  their  intellectual  life  ? 

"  The  presence  here  to-day  of  this  assemblage  of  thousands 
gives  the  triumphant  answer. 

"  To  the  hearts  of  thoughtful  men  and  women  in  this  city  and 
in  this  State,  the  career  and  fortunes  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania come  home  this  day  with  a  personal  force  undreamed  of 
in  former  years.  Well  has  it  been  recently  said  by  his  Honor  the 
Mayor,  that  '  Nothing  so  well  attests  the  advance  of  Philadelphia 
as  the  growth  of  the  University.'  Brave  words,  wherein  our 
University  finds  its  grandeur  and  its  power. 

"  And  all  this  is  the  work  of  the  last  decade,  under  the  guiding 
influence  of  one  man. 

"  To  this  present  position  of  the  University  (thus  most  briefly 
recalled),  to  the  increase  of  buildings,  to  the  increase  of  profes- 
sors, to  the  increase  of  students,  of  departments,  of  pecuniary 
resources,  to  its  higher  influence,  its  consolidated  organization, 
and  its  keen  intellectual  activity — to  all  these  the  Trustees  appeal 
this  day  as  a  justification  of  the  wisdom  of  their  choice  thirteen 
years  ago. 

"  And  to  the  Provost  of  their  choice,  in  this  closing  hour  of  his 
official  duties,  the  Trustees  acknowledge  their  appreciation  of  his 
unparalleled  services,  and,  remembering  the  self-distrust  and  pale 
misgivings  with  which  he  assumed  his  high  office,  they  are  happy 
in  the  consummation  which  has  made  that  office  higher  than  their 
imaginations  conceived  when  he  ascended  the  chair. 

344 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  We,  therefore,  the  Trustees,  believing  that,  on  an  occasion 
like  the  present,  the  briefest  words  are  the  strongest,  ask  him  here 
and  now  to  accept  this  public  expression  of  our  official  thanks. 

"  So  far  the  University,  as  an  institution. 

"  Let  me  now,  as  Anacreon  says,  change  the  chord,  and  doffing 
the  Trustee,  turn  to  matters  more  personal."  ^ 

He  then  presented  to  the  University  the  bust  of  Dr.  Pepper 
in  the  following  words : 

"  It  is  not  often  in  a  man's  life  that  he  finds  himself  obliged,  as 
I  now  find  myself,  to  speak  privately  in  public.  But  on  the  sub- 
ject to  which  we  must  now  turn,  I  must  speak  to  you  very  confi- 
dentially, as  far  as  the  Provost  is  concerned  ;  if  after  this  warning 
he  chooses  to  listen, — well,  there  is  a  proverb  about  ^  listeners' 
which  he  can  lay  to  heart,  and  if  he  wince,  he  must  not  blame  us. 

"  'Tis  a  thankless  task  to  refer  to  the  imperfections  in  human 
nature — it's  the  only  nature  we  have,  and  we  had  better  make  the 
best  of  it.  Yet  we  cannot  quite  shut  our  eyes  to  the  consciousness 
that  there  is,  in  this  nature  of  ours,  at  least  one  uncomfortable 
trait, — I  had  almost  termed  it  a  detestable  trait, — which  is  :  An 
aversion  to  praise  any  man,  and  above  all  to  rear  any  monument  to 
him,  while  he  is  living.  We  fill  high  the  sparkling  bowl  to  the 
memory,  and  we  pile  high  with  wreaths  the  tombs,  of  men  to 
whom  when  living  we  vouchsafe  not  much  more  than  a  supercilous 
nod.  They  may  have  craved  a  word  of  sympathy  or  of  admira- 
tion, and  we  are  marble  mute ;  but  no  sooner  are  they  where 
*  Honor's   voice '    cannot  '  provoke    the   silent   dust,'   nor  '  flattery 


^  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Commencement,  7  June,  1894. 
Address  by  Horace  Howard  Furness,  delivered  at  the  request  of  his 
co-Trustees,  in  accordance  with  a  resolution  passed  at  a  Trustees' 
meeting  when  the  Provost's  resignation  was  accepted  ;  also  a  short 
address  made  by  him  at  the  unveiling  of  the  model  of  a  statue  of 
Provost  Pepper.     Philadelphia,  1894. 

345 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

soothe  the  dull,  cold  ear  of  Death,'  than  we  burst  forth  into  applause 
of  their  deeds,  rend  the  air  with  our  paeans  of  lofty  praise,  and 
erect  their  statues.  Herein  the  world  has  grown  no  better  since 
the  days  of  Homer :  '  Seven  Grecian  cities' — you  all  know  the 
distich. 

"  But  without  stopping  to  analyze  this  feeling,  let  us,  at  least, 
here  and  now,  reform  the  practice,  and,  remembering  who  it  is  that 
has  raised  this  dear  University  to  her  present  eminence,  and  recalling 
who  it  is  that  has  toiled  night  and  day  in  her  behalf,  and  made  her 
influence  felt  throughout  this  city,  and  throughout  these  Middle 
States,  with  never  a  thought  of  self,  or  of  his  own  interest,  or  of 
his  own  ease,  let  us  cast  to  the  winds  this  petty,  unworthy  feeling, 
and  say,  outright  to  his  face,  how  we  love,  and  honor,  and  admire 
our  Provost. 

"  In  the  midst  of  our  applause  and  admiration  of  our  retiring 
Provost  (it  is  the  very  first  time,  by  the  way,  that,  where  the 
interests  of  the  University  were  concerned,  he  has  been  retiring), 
let  us  not  forget  that,  while  exactly  fulfilling  these  manifold  and 
most  onerous  duties  as  the  head  of  a  large  University,  he  was  still 
in  active  practice  as  a  far-famed  physician  : 

*  Who  doomed  to  go  in  company  with  Pain 
And  Fear  and  Bloodshed,  miserable  train  ! 
In  face  of  these  doth  exercise  a  power 
Which  is  our  human  nature's  highest  dower.' 

"  The  large  emoluments  derived  from  this  widely  extended  prac- 
tice he  has  bestowed  with  lavish  hand  on  the  University ;  the 
stores  of  experience  there  gained  he  gives  in  his  lectures  to  his 
large  classes  in  the  Medical  School. 

"  But  all  this  pertains  somewhat  to  that  official  character  which 
he  is  so  soon  to  put  off.  Our  dismay  herein  would  be  profound 
did  we  not  believe  that  under  the  wise  rule  of  him  whose  modesty 
will  permit  us  to  call  him  only  a  half  successor,  the  glowing  and 
exuberant   health  of  our   fair  and   ever  young  mother  would   con- 

346 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

tinue.  But  shall  we  not,  once  more  before  we  part,  come  even 
closer  to  our  Provost,  and  say  how  he  has  personally  endeared  him- 
self to  us  all  ?  Shall  we  not  recall  that  gentleness,  that  urbanity, 
that  intense  earnestness  which  lent  mettle  to  every  professor  and 
to  every  student  within  our  gates,  and  that  unflagging  industry  and 
Titanic  power  to  work,  which  have  been  the  admiration  of  all, — 
and  the  despair.  Those  who  have  been  close  behind  him  have 
known  better,  perhaps,  than  others  at  a  distance,  how  single  has 
been  his  eye  in  every  question  of  the  University's  interests,  and 
that  it  has  been  his  self-effacement  which,  '  Clock  to  itself,  knew 
the  true  minute'  when  to  act. 

"  No  '  fair  mother'  ever  had  a  more  devoted,  self-forgetting  son, 
and  she  cannot  forget  him.  No  perennial  bronze  is  needed  to  secure 
his  memory.     When  he  has  'joined  the  choir  invisible'  (Absit  omen  ! 

'  Serus  in  ccElum  rcdeat,  diuque 
Laetus  intersit  populo  !') 

he  will  '  live  again  in  minds  made  better'  by  his  labors  here.  Each 
annual  wave  dismissed  from  this  spot  will,  in  ever-widening  circles, 
carry  his  influence  long  and  far.  But  this  assurance,  firm  though 
it  be,  is,  for  us  simple  folk,  somewhat  of  the  chameleon's  dish, 
promise-crammed,  and  we  have  Hamlet's  word  that  there  is  no 
strengthening  power  there.  Wherefore  in  this  materialistic  age, 
we,  the  sons  of  the  University  by  birth  and  by  adoption,  cannot 
be  contented  with  anything  less  substantial  than  a  visible,  material 
sign  of  what  must  some  day  be  an  immaterial  presence.  As  '  the 
meanest  garment  which  has  but  clipped  the  form  of  those  we  love' 
is  dear  to  us,  so  we  crave,  for  our  Provost,  what  is  even  better : 
his  likeness  in  his  habit  as  he  lived,  '  wherein  the  sculptor  had  a 
strife  with  nature  to  outdo  the  life,'  to  which  we  can  point  in 
future  years  and  say  '  Sic  sedebat.'  Albeit  we  know  that  '  that 
better  Self  shall  live  till  time  shall  fold  its  eyelids,'  yet  this  statue, 
moulded  by  hands  of  highest  skill,  shall,  when  cast  in  enduring 
bronze,  transmit  to  future  ages  the  lineaments  we  all  love  so  well. 

347 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  •  [1894 

It  is  not  unlikely  that,  at  first,  even  this  will  disappoint  you,  the 
living  face  with  its  color  and  softer  outline  is  too  vividly  present  in 
your  thoughts.  But  the  time  will  come  when  generations  now 
unborn  will  gaze  with  gratitude  upon  it,  and  then,  when  all  dis- 
cords are  hushed  and  all  petty  limitations  of  mortality  are  forgotten, 
and  we  are  all  gone  '  where  are  no  storms,  no  noise,  but  silence  and 
eternal  sleep,'  then  shall  this  image  which  I  now  unveil  be  held  as 
the  true  effigy  of  one  whose  heart  and  soul  and  mind  and  strength 
were  devoted,  while  Provost,  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

«'  *  Who  is  the  Happy  Warrior  ?     Who  is  he 
That  every  man  in  arms  should  wish  to  be  ? 
Who,  when  mortal  mists  are  gathering,  draws 
His  breath  in  [serene  hope]  of  Heaven's  applause? 
This  is  the  Happy  Warrior  !      This  is  he 
That  every  man  in  arms  should  wish  to  be  !'  " 

Of  Dr.  Pepper's  thoughts  and  emotions  at  this  time  noth- 
ing need  be  said  in  this  place ;  but  their  character  might  have 
been  discerned  could  the  public,  as  it  listened  to  his  address 
in  the  afternoon  to  the  Alumni  of  the  College  Department, 
have  read  between  the  lines. 

"June  7,  1894. 

"  I  am  aware  that  it  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  customary 
part  of  the  proceedings  on  this  occasion  for  the  Provost  to  render 
some  account  of  the  leading  events  affecting  our  University  which 
have  occurred  during  the  preceding  year.  This  has  always  been  to 
me  an  agreeable  duty ;  to-night  it  is  doubly  so  because  the  past  year 
has  been  in  every  way  the  most  prosperous  one  in  the  history  of 
the  University.  The  only  drawback  to  this  pleasure  is  the  thought, 
that  for  reasons  which  have  seemed  conclusive  to  myself  I  have,  as 
you  well  know,  decided  that  this  shall  be  the  last  occasion  on  which 
I  can  so  address  you.  It  seemed  twenty  years  ago  as  though  it 
were  too  much  for  one  to  hope  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  the 
University   of    Pennsylvania    should    attain    the    development    and 

348 


WILLIAM     I'EPl'tR     A:T.    ^  j 


I 


IEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

receive  the  recognition  due  to  her  age  and  opportunities.  What 
baneful  influence  had  chilled  and  withered  the  public  spirit  that 
flourished  so  vigorously  in  Philadelphia  one  hundred  years  ago  ? 
We  never  grew  deaf  to  the  cry  of  suffering :  our  charities  had  be- 
come numerous  and  wealthy.  But  what  of  the  higher  intellectual 
life  of  the  city,  of  the  cultivation  of  literature,  of  art,  of  music  ? 
A  miserable  record  from  which  one  turns  with  shame.  The  rank 
of  any  community  may  be  judged  as  fairly  by  what  it  gives  for  the 
higher  education  as  in  any  other  way.  For  nearly  seventy  years 
Philadelphia,  and  indeed  the  whole  of  Pennsylvania,  utterly  ignored 
this  vital  interest.  The  disastrous  effects  of  this  period  of  stagna- 
tion upon  the  University  were  typical  of  what  happened  to  the 
general  literary  and  artistic  interests  of  the  community.  The  Cen- 
tennial Exposition  marked  an  awakening  of  the  public  mind  and 
conscience  in  these  great  matters.  The  task  of  those  who  have 
decided  to  labor  for  the  intellectual  advancement  of  this  city  and 
State  has  been  far  easier  since,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
the  results  achieved  have  been  gratifying  and  encouraging.  Even 
what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  efforts  of  us  who  have  worked 
for  the  University  may  illustrate  this.  I  can  more  properly  speak 
for  the  changes  which  have  been  wrought  in  the  thirteen  years 
during  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  hold  the  office  of  Provost  of 
the  University. 

"  I  would  not  seem  to  attach  too  great  importance  to  the  mere  ac- 
quisition of  lands  and  buildings  and  endowments,  though  these  have 
been  considerable.  Yet  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  various 
steps,  always  taken  with  strenuous  effort,  by  which  our  territory  has 
been  increased  from  nine  to  fifty-two  acres,  have  been  those  which 
determined  decisively  the  growth  and  future  greatness  of  the  Uni- 
versity. I  know  no  other  institution  favored  with  such  a  domain  in 
the  centre  of  a  vast  community;  and  I  have  never  doubted  that 
these  territorial  advantages  would  result  in  the  development  here  of 
one  of  the  largest  and  most  important  collegiate  communities  in  the 
world.     The  addition  of  three  and  a  half  millions  to  the  value  of 

349 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

our  holdings  in  lands,  buildings,  and  endowments  in  thirteen  years  is 
a  creditable  showing ;  though  other  institutions  have  surpassed  it, 
and  though  the  last  year  brought  us  almost  one  million  in  such 
value  as  an  indication  of  the  far  more  rapid  rate  of  acquisition 
henceforward.  I  know  well  that  the  rapidity  with  which  depart- 
ments have  been  multiplied  and  modifications  introduced  into  the 
educational  methods  here  at  the  University  has  often  excited  criti- 
cism as  to  the  soundness  of  the  policy  which  governed  these  devel- 
ments.  Gloomy  prophecies  are  never  wanting,  nor  are  critics,  both 
kindly  and  the  other  sort.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  each  change 
has  been  based  upon  the  cool  and  deliberate  calculation  of  its  prac- 
tical results  as  well  as  of  its  educational  effect.  The  standards 
have  been  raised  at  every  point ;  the  value  of  every  diploma  issued 
by  the  University  has  been  greatly  enhanced  ;  and  complete  reor- 
ganization of  each  department  has  been  effected  with  immense  in- 
crease in  efficiency  and  productiveness.  The  teaching  force  has 
grown  from  88,  in  1 881,  to  268  at  present.  But  this  has  been  no 
disproportionate  or  excessive  increase,  for  the  number  of  students  in 
attendance  has  increased  at  the  same  time  from  981  to  2180.  It  is 
true  that  the  University  has  been  liberal  in  extending  scholarship 
aid  to  deserving  students,  and  that  as  a  result  of  the  wise  and 
happy  relations  established  with  the  municipality  we  carry  fifty  prize 
city  scholarships.  Nevertheless,  the  substantial  character  of  the 
increase  in  the  body  of  the  students  may  be  inferred  from  the  in- 
crease in  fees,  the  amount  received  in  1881  having  been  ;^92,70i, 
as  against  ^^230,567  actually  received  during  the  current  year.  It 
is  impossible  to  separate  the  financial  results  from  the  other  effects 
of  the  administration  of  a  University.  It  is  easy  to  frame  schemes  ; 
the  difficulty  is  to  select  those  only  which  are  capable  of  being  put 
into  successful  operation.  The  Committee  on  Finance  and  Prop- 
erty have  requested  the  Treasurer  of  the  University  to  furnish  me, 
in  advance  of  the  appearance  of  his  annual  Report,  with  an  abstract 
of  his  statement.  The  total  value  of  the  University  property  in 
1881  was  ^1,600,000;   it  is  now  ;^5,4I7,035. 

350 


Mr.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

"  You  may  have  heard  statements  to  the  effect  that  the  Uni- 
versity is  in  debt,  and  it  is  true  that  on  this  property,  as  above  esti- 
mated, there  are  obligations  of  ^338,939.  But  it  must  be  added 
that  these  obligations  are  represented  by  a  tract  of  land  purchased 
by  the  University  for  ^150,000,  and  by  the  Central  Heat  and  Light 
Station,  the  outlay  on  which  has  been  ^21 1,753.  The  ten  acres  of 
ground  which  the  University  purchased,  and  borrowed  the  money 
to  purchase,  for  ^15,000,  could,  we  are  told  by  reliable  judges,  be 
sold  to-day  for  over  $250,000.  It  has  furnished  a  site  for  the  La- 
boratory of  Hygiene,  and,  in  part,  also  for  the  new  Laboratory  of 
Chemistry.  For  the  present  the  greater  part  of  this  splendid  tract 
of  ground  is  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Athletic  Association,  under 
the  appropriate  name  of  Eranklin  Field. 

"  Of  the  Central  Heat  and  Light  Station  it  is  truly  said  by  the 
Treasurer  that  it  provides  a  source  of  large  revenue  through  the 
increase  in  fees  from  students  of  the  School  of  Mechanical  Engi- 
neering, and  it  promotes  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  the  whole 
University  by  rendering  to  its  departments  a  better  service  of  heat, 
light,  and  ventilation  than  could  otherwise  be  obtained.  Each  de- 
partment is  charged  upon  an  equitable  basis  for  its  share  of  the 
above  advantages,  so  that,  while  a  first-class  service  is  secured  in 
place  of  the  former  inferior  one,  it  is  hoped  that  actual  saving  will 
be  effected  by  the  economies  possible  through  a  single  central  plant, 
instead  of  a  series  of  heating  and  lighting  plants  in  each  separate 
building  in  the  University  domain.  That  we  may  regard  the  finan- 
cial position  of  the  University  with  satisfaction  is  further  shown  by 
the  figures  furnished  as  to  the  current  income  and  expenses.  In 
1 88 1  there  was  a  debt  of  ;^45 0,000,  in  the  form  of  mortgage  bonds 
bearing  six  per  cent,  interest,  and  covering  the  entire  property  of  the 
University.  Unfortunately,  this  did  not  represent  only  productive 
additions  to  the  facilities  of  the  University.  It  represented  rather 
the  accumulation  at  compound  interest  of  the  large  annual  deficits 
recurring  during  a  series  of  years.  To  cancel  this  debt  was  a  most 
difficult  matter.     A  considerable  amount  of  money  was  raised  by 

35 1 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

private  subscription,  and  the  balance  was  paid  oft  from  the  unre- 
stricted general  fund  of  the  University,  with  the  result  that  this 
highly  important  fund  was  practically  extinguished  for  the  time.  I 
assume  that  every  educational  institution  is  run  at  a  loss,  and  there 
is  an  annual  deficit  to  be  dealt  with.  But  we  have  succeeded  in 
meeting  this  deficit  with  funds  secured  specially  for  that  purpose. 
Indeed,  the  Treasurer  informs  me  that  for  the  past  three  years  the 
current  receipts  have  exceeded  the  current  expenditures  by  over 
$7000.  You  will  appreciate,  therefore,  the  extreme  satisfaction 
with  which  I  quote  the  above  official  figures  at  the  close  of  my 
administration. 

"  Speaking  to  you,  my  brother  Alumni,  in  the  intimacy  of  this 
fraternal  meeting,  I  cannot  forbear  an  allusion  to  my  own  personal 
feelings  in  severing  a  tie  which  has  so  long  bound  me  to  the  Uni- 
versity. I  have  given  the  best  years  of  my  life  to  her  service,  but 
it  has  never  caused  a  moment's  regret  or  hesitation.  I  loved  the 
University  as  a  boy  j  that  love  has  grown  with  my  growth  and 
strengthened  with  my  strength.  I  have  often  feared  I  loved  her 
too  well ;  and  yet  I  can  truly  say  that  the  most  elevating  influences 
of  my  life  have  come  from  that  devotion.  It  has  never  seemed  to 
me  that  what  we  call  great  power  and  high  office  could  be  other 
than  large  opportunities  for  lowly  service.  Of  the  affectionate 
relations  which  have  so  richly  blessed  these  years  of  University 
work,  of  the  ardent  co-operation,  the  loyal  support,  the  growing 
appreciation  of  the  community,  I  cannot  trust  myself  to  speak. 
Of  course  I  have  received  vastly  more  credit  than  I  am  entitled  to. 
The  results  above  sketched  could  not  come  save  from  the  generous 
and  devoted  exertions  of  many  workers.  It  is  one  of  the  best 
features  of  University  life  that  all  become  so  intensely  desirous  of 
the  advancement  of  the  great  cause  which  is  represented  by  the 
University  that  minor  and  personal  considerations  are  largely  lost 
sight  of.  Great  success  in  any  important  movement  gives  no 
excuse  for  complacency  or  for  repose.  It  is  only  an  added  reason 
for  greater  exertion.     The  field  before  us  in  our  University  work  is 

352 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

without  limit ;  what  has  been  acquired  and  accomplished  is  trifling 
in  comparison  with  what  must  be  secured  and  must  be  done.  It  is 
a  hard  thing  for  one  whose  heart  is  in  a  large  task  to  decide  the 
moment  when  it  is  wise  to  hand  over  to  another  the  charge  of 
leadership  confided  to  him.  If  the  work  is  prospering,  so  many 
motives  seem  to  prompt  even  a  longer  delay.  When  I  accepted 
the  call  to  be  Provost  of  the  University  I  promised  my  family  that 
I  would  hold  the  position  only  for  three  or  at  the  outside  for  five 
years.  One  important  question  has  arisen  after  another ;  complica- 
tions have  developed  which  needed  adjustment.  One  cannot  leave 
a  post  of  trust  unless  all  is  prosperous  ;  one  shrinks  from  abdicating 
when  it  has  become  a  position  of  assured  honor  and  power.  Since 
I  resolved  to  resign  the  Provostship  I  found  myself  assailed  by  dis- 
quieting suggestions  from  within  •,  but  there  was  not  one  of  them 
which,  in  the  last  analysis,  was  other  than  some  expression  of 
vanity. 

"  I  found  I  could  not  abandon  the  pursuit  of  medical  science ; 
and  I  knew  it  would  be  a  physical  impossibility  for  any  one  to 
continue  the  double  labor  I  have  borne  for  nearly  fifteen  years,  long 
after  reaching,  as  I  have  done,  the  age  of  fifty  years.  One  would 
not  wish  to  hold  on  with  failing  powers  until  comment  grew  as  to 
the  poor  discharge  of  duty.  One  would  not  wish  to  leave  to  a 
successor  the  example  of  relaxed  efforts  and  halting  policy,  which 
would  ill  serve  as  a  stimulus  to  his  own  labors.  Rather  should  he 
strive  to  seize  the  moment  when  the  chariot  wheels  of  progress  are 
turning  most  swiftly  to  resign  the  reins, — knowing  that  while  the 
impetus  may  sustain  the  speed  for  a  brief  time,  its  continuance 
will  call  out  all  the  skill  and  exertions  of  him  who  takes  the  seat. 
Every  one  in  this  room  is  pledged  to  continued  and  to  even  more 
earnest  efforts  to  advance  the  development  of  our  dear  Alma  Mater. 
A  glorious  opportunity  is  before  her ;  it  demands  only  united  and 
determined  work  on  our  part.  What  has  been  done  already  is  but 
the  beginning;  all  that  can  be  accomplished  during  our  lifetime 
will  but  enable  us  to  see  more  clearly  the  outlines  of  that  ideal 
23  353 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

University  to  which  we  aspire  ;  but  which,  as  embodying  the  loftiest 
conceptions  of  each  generation,  and  modified  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  advancing  civilization,  will  ever  rise  higher  and  higher 
above  the  level  of  achievement,  and  will  serve  to  future  ages,  as  it 
does  to  ours,  as  a  pure  and  powerful  incentive  to  devoted  exertions 
in  the  sacred  cause  of  knowledge  and  truth.  I  do  not  bid  you 
farewell.  I  am  and  shall  always  be  one  of  you.  But  I  wish  I 
could  adequately  thank  you  for  all  the  cordial  friendship  and  the 
strengthening  approval  you  have  extended  to  me  during  the  years 
of  my  official  life." 

Two  weeks  later,  Dr.  Pepper  delivered  an  address  before 
the  Cleveland  Medical  Society  on  "  National  and  Municipal 
Relations  of  the  Medical  Profession."  Perhaps  the  most 
interesting  passage  in  it  referred  to  the  new  movements  in 
which  he  was  now  interested, — the  Free  Library  of  the  City 
of  Philadelphia  and  the  creation  of  a  National  University  at 
Washington. 

"  It  seems  evident  that  to  secure  a  broad,  popular  recognition  of 
the  paramount  claims  of  hygiene  and  preventive  medicine  there 
must  be  prosecuted  vigorously  an  education  of  the  entire  com- 
munity, and  there  must  be  exhibited  on  the  part  of  physicians  a 
still  higher  conception  of  our  duty  as  public-spirited  and  disinter- 
ested citizens.  I  am  persuaded  that  nothing  will  conduce  more  to 
this  consummation  we  seek  than  such  measures  as  your  society  is 
engaged  in  carrying  out. 

"  Build  deep  and  broad  the  foundations  of  your  library.  It  will 
have  great  weight  in  effecting  the  organization  of  the  profession 
and  in  bringing  it  into  relations  of  reciprocal  benefit  with  the  com- 
munity. Insist  upon  having  your  own  suitable  fire-proof  building, 
your  own  adequate  endowment,  and  a  broad  and  liberal  administra- 
tion. It  is  doubtful  if  there  exist  any  more  powerful  human  agency 
for  the  amelioration  of  society  than  a  free  public  library ;  with  the 
free  school  it  will  prove  irresistible.     You  also  will  find  your  medi- 

354 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

cal  library  a  potent  influence.  It  should  be  affiliated  with  the  free 
public  library  of  your  city  ;  it  should  be  open  freely  to  all  serious 
readers ;  it  should,  of  course,  extend  the  most  liberal  facilities  to 
the  medical  profession  of  the  entire  State.  The  fine  example  of 
Case  is  familiar  to  all  of  us.  It  will  serve  as  an  incentive  to  others 
to  do  for  medical  science  what  this  wise  benefactor  did  for  the  gen- 
eral public.  Let  us  show  that  we  would  regard  the  high  privileges 
we  claim  as  the  custodians  of  the  public  health  just  as  we  regard 
those  we  now  enjoy  as  the  confidential  advisers  on  all  questions 
concerning  personal  hygiene.  These  are  sacred  trusts  whose  sanc- 
tion reposes  as  much  in  the  cultivated  intelligence  of  the  com- 
munity as  in  the  scrupulous  fidelity  and  technical  skill  of  the  pro- 
fession. It  is  our  duty  to  work  for  the  mental  as  well  as  the 
physical  welfare  of  society,  and  no  one  who  gives  attention  to  the 
subject  will  challenge  the  assertion  that  '  free  libraries  are  as  indis- 
pensable to  the  mental  health  of  a  city  as  are  its  public  parks, 
water  supply,  or  sewers  to  its  physical  health.'  As  the  president  of 
the  Free  Library  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  I  have  been  led  to 
study  somewhat  closely  the  growth  and  influence  of  the  free  library 
movement  in  this  country  and  elsewhere. 

"  It  always  happens  that  so  soon  as  the  public  have  a  taste  of 
the  advantages  of  a  good  library  it  demands  more  and  more  free 
enjoyment  of  its  happy  influence.  Every  town  in  every  State  of 
the  Union  must  have  its  free  library.  Every  medical  centre  must 
also  have  its  fully  endowed  medical  library.  I  would  urge  that  we 
see  to  it  that  no  department  of  our  free  libraries  be  more  fully 
represented  than  that  of  public  health,  and  that  every  publication  is 
there  included  that  will  draw  our  people  to  the  study  of  hygiene, 
and  thus  to  a  knowledge  of  the  vast  work  to  be  accomplished  in 
the  field  of  preventive  medicine.  And  in  like  manner  I  would 
urge  the  free  admission  of  all  serious  readers  to  those  sections  of 
our  medical  libraries  which  are  devoted  to  the  great  subject  of 
sanitary  science.  Let  us  organize !  Let  us  organize !  Let  us 
educate,  educate,  educate  ! 

355 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

*'  So  far  as  strictly  medical  organization  is  concerned,  our  work  ' 
is  well  advanced.  The  county  societies  lead  to  the  State  society,  i 
and  the  State  societies  to  the  American  Medical  Association.  The 
corporate  as  well  as  the  scientific  interests  of  the  profession  are 
well  represented  in  these  bodies.  The  various  special  societies  of 
national  scope  afford  unrivalled  fields  for  purely  technical  work  of 
the  highest  order;  and  the  federation  of  these  into  the  Triennial 
Congress  of  American  Physicians  and  Surgeons  gives  a  wholesome 
breadth  and  an  elevating  purpose  to  the  entire  group.  Cordial  re- 
lations have  been  established  with  the  organization  of  health  officers. 
The  success  of  the  Pan-American  Medical  Congress  may  well  seem 
to  complete  the  task.  More  broad  and  catholic  in  its  spirit  than 
any  previous  organization,  it  has  brought  into  organic  relations  the 
medical  profession  of  the  entire  continent ;  has  secured  full  govern- 
mental recognition  of  our  efforts  for  public  health ;  has  created 
continuing  agencies  capable  under  vigorous  administration  of  yield- 
ing splendid  results,  both  scientific  and  practical.  I  believe  that 
we  shall  be  found  worthy  of  these  great  opportunities,  and  that  by 
our  loyal  support  of  our  organizations  we  shall  make  them  more 
and  more  fruitful  of  good,  and  shall  raise  them  higher  and  higher 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world. 

"  Nor  should  we  fail  to  labor  for  equally  comprehensive  organiza- 
tion of  our  educational  work.  The  public  primary  school,  the  high 
and  normal  schools,  the  college  and  the  university,  must  constitute 
an  unbroken  series  of  graded  and  adjusted  educational  agencies. 
The  culmination  of  these  systems  in  the  several  States  should  surely 
be  found  in  a  federal  university  at  the  capital  of  the  nation.  The 
spectacle  of  rival  religious  denominations  struggling  for  precedence 
in  the  establishment  of  denominational  colleges  of  the  regulation 
type  is  unworthy  of  the  vast  educational  facilities  offered  in  the 
city  of  Washington.  High  authorities  differ  as  to  the  best  way  of 
availing  ourselves  of  these  facilities  -,  objections  have  been  urged  to 
all  the  plans  as  yet  brought  forward.  I  can  conceive  of  a  truly 
federal  university  dedicated  exclusively  to  post-graduate  work ;  re- 

356 


^T.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

quiring  no  vast  outlay  for  buildings,  libraries,  museums,  or  labora- 
tories, but  provided  with  many  endowed  fellowships  open  to  men 
and  women  alike ;  under  the  supervision  of  a  board  of  trustees, 
one  member  of  which  should  be  appointed  by  the  university  svstem 
of  each  State ;  with  a  faculty  composed  in  part  of  the  eminent 
experts  stationed  at  Washington  and  in  part  of  the  ablest  teachers 
selected  from  year  to  year  from  the  various  colleges,  who  would 
regard  it  as  an  honor  and  a  privilege  to  spend  a  sabbatical  year  in 
the  highest  type  of  work  as  a  member  of  such  a  representative 
faculty.  Might  we  witness  at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century 
the  organization  of  the  medical  and  sanitary  interests  of  the  nation 
completed  by  the  creation  of  a  government  department  with  a 
secretary  of  public  health  in  the  Cabinet  of  the  President,  and  the 
organization  of  a  truly  federal  university ;  and  might  we,  as  mem- 
bers of  our  great  and  influential  profession,  be  able  to  look  back 
and  feel  that  our  highest  duty  had  been  strenuously  done,  and  that 
our  full  share  in  these  great  achievements  had  been  honestly  borne, 
then  am  I  sure  that  a  proud  place  would  he  hold  who  should  stand 
here,  as  I  stand  to-day  sadly  conscious  of  our  dereliction,  to  address 
you  on  the  '  Municipal  and  National  Relations  of  the  Medical 
Profession.' " ' 

Dr.  Pepper's  last  Report  as  Provost  was  published  after  his 
resignation.'^ 

"  It  is  the  rapidity,  growth,  and  expansion  of  the  University  and 
the  successful  accomplishment  of  various  comprehensive  measures," 


^  National  and  Municipal  Relations  of  the  Medical  Profession, 
by  Professor  William  Pepper,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  read  before  the 
Cleveland  Medical  Society,  June  22,  1894.  Cleveland,  Ohio  :  Re- 
printed from  the  Cleveland  Medical  Gazette^  August,  1894.     1 1  pp. 

^  Report  of  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  from 
October,  1892,  to  June,  1894.  Philadelphia  :  Printed  for  the  Uni- 
versity, 1894.      212  pp. 

357 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

said  he,  and  he  referred  more  particularly  to  his  statement  of  them 
in  his  letter  of  resignation  of  April  23,  "  which  have  made  me 
feel  justified  in  withdrawing  from  a  post  of  so  much  usefulness. 
It  has  been  a  subject  of  frequent  comment  and  of  occasional  criti- 
cism that  the  creation  of  new  departments  and  the  establishment 
of  new  chairs  have  been  at  a  rapid  rate  during  the  past  thirteen 
years.  This  expansion,  however,  proceeded  upon  a  definite  plan 
by  which  several  loosely  associated  schools  have  been  gradually 
approximated  and  ultimately  combined,  with  additional  departments 
of  recent  creation,  in  harmonious  and  equitable  co-operation.  It 
has  been  clearly  pointed  out  by  Professor  Thorpe,  in  the  important 
memorial  volume  recently  published  by  the  national  government, 
that  this  new  development  is  the  legitimate  outcome  of  the  broad 
basis  originally  secured  for  the  University  by  the  philosophical 
Franklin.  Historical  research  (certainly  verified  by  a  committee 
appointed  by  your  Board)  shows  that  the  foundation  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  is  to  be  referred  to  the  year  1740,  thus 
making  it  the  fourth  in  point  of  age  among  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  this  country.  From  its  earliest  days  it  has  been  honorably 
distinguished  by  the  origination  of  important  educational  measures 
subsequently  adopted  by  sister  institutions.  It  seems  natural,  there- 
fore, to  find  that  the  title  of  University  was  first  used  in  America 
in  1779,  in  connection  with  this  institution.  In  the  form  it  has 
reached  in  recent  years  it  represents,  with  one  serious  break  in  the 
circle,  the  rounded  and  complete  form  of  the  typical  American  Uni- 
versity. The  organic  connection  with  the  public  school  system  of 
Philadelphia  was  happily  effected  in  1888  by  the  establishment  of 
fifty  prize  scholarships  ;  the  thoroughly  re-organized  College  De- 
partment, fully  equipped  in  all  branches  and  surrounded  with  ample 
territory  for  the  construction  of  dormitories  and  for  the  cultivation 
of  athletic  exercises  and  sports ;  the  equitable  provision  for  the 
admission  of  women  to  the  highest  faculty  and  degree,  on  the  same 
conditions  as  men,  without  involving  the  necessity  of  co-education 

358 


JE,r.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

in  the  undergraduate  classes ;  ^  the  group  of  professional  schools 
organically  connected  with  the  College  Department,  giving  and 
receiving  strength,  though  each  possessing  its  independent  establish- 
ment and  individuality,  its  honorable  traditions,  and  its  own  special 
line  of  development ;  and  finally  the  comprehensive  Faculty  of 
Philosophy  crowning  the  entire  structure  and  inviting  earnest 
students  to  advanced  work  and  original  investigation — these  are  the 
large  features  of  an  academic  plan,  the  development  of  which  may 
confidently  be  entrusted  to  the  future." 

The  obvious  point  of  incompleteness  to  which  he  referred 
was  the  absence  of  dormitories.  He  had  taken  frequent 
opportunities  throughout  his  administration  to  urge  the  ab- 
solute necessity  of  dormitory  life  as  an  element  in  a  complete 
University,  and  he  now  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
this  necessity  was  clearly  recognized  by  the  Board  and  by 
the  Faculty.  It  was  not  his  plan  that  students  should  be 
required  to  live  in  the  dormitories,  but  rather  that  the  build- 
ings should  be  made  so  attractive  that  they  would  prefer  a 
home  in  them  to  one  in  any  boarding-house  within  their 
reach.  It  was  his  opinion  that  the  absence  of  dormitories 
diverted  students  from  the  University.  Now  that  there  was 
ample  space  for  suitable  buildings,  he  was  convinced  that 
the  financial  arrangements  for  their  erection  would  be  found 
easy,  since  in  Philadelphia,  as  elsewhere,  the  funds  so  invested 
would  be  found  permanently  productive. 

"  Just  as  the  University  needs  the  great  libraries  and  museums 
and  the  costly  equipment  of  special  laboratories  to  foster  advanced 
study  and  research,  just  as  it  needs  the  aid  of  University  Extension 


^  The  resolution  of  the  Board,  taken  in  1891,  opening  the  De- 
partment of  Philosophy  to  women,  inaugurated  a  policy  which 
has  been  followed  by  other  leading  institutions. 

359 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

and  of  other  allies  by  which  the  mass  of  the  community  may  be 
reached  so  that  the  University  shall  do  its  share  in  developing  civic 
character,  so  does  the  College  Department  demand  a  well-organized 
dormitory  system  where  judicious  influence  shall  work  for  the  devel- 
opment of  individual  character.  After  the  dormitories  will  natu- 
rally follow  the  Central  Dining  Hall ;  the  Students'  Hall  for  social 
intercourse  and  the  numerous  agencies  for  the  daily  life  of  a  great 
body  of  students ;  ^  the  general  Gymnasium  in  connection  with 
Franklin  Field  and  the  University  Chapel.  The  proximity  of  the 
University  to  the  fine  auditorium  of  the  Academy  of  Music  seems 
to  postpone  to  a  more  remote  date  the  construction  of  a  large  hall 
for  Commencement  Exercises  and  other  public  functions." 

He  believed  that  the  prosperity  of  the  integral  departments 
of  the  University  already  organized  indicated  clearly  that  it 
had  entered  upon  a  career  of  growth,  the  future  extent  of 
which  would  be  practically  unlimited.  He  earnestly  desired 
that  the  Graduate  Department  for  women  might  speedily  be 
followed  by  the  adequate  endowment  of  a  college  for  women 
similar  to  Bamard  at  Columbia  and  RadclifFe  at  Harvard. 
He  believed  that  the  time  was  at  hand  in  America  when  the 
leading  universities  would  be  associated  and  develop  a  system 
more  or  less  resembling  the  type  presented  by  Oxford  and 
Cambridge. 

"  Our  University  system,"  said  he,  "  is  exhibiting  so  much  flexi- 
bility and  strength  and  the  broad  university  idea  is  becoming  so 
firmly  fixed  that  no  retrograde  tendency  need  be  feared  from  the 
admission  to  the  University  system  of  separate  colleges,  with  inde- 
pendent tutorial  or  even  professional  staff.  The  immense  aggrega- 
tions of  young  students  in  the  undergraduate  classes  of  a  great  Uni- 
versity seem  to  call  for  more  definite  organization  and  supervision 


^  Realized  shonly  after  in  the  erection  of  Houston  Hall. 

360 


JEt.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

than  is  apparently  to  be  expected  from  the  present  academic  and 
dormitory  system.  The  large  power  retained  by  the  governing 
board  of  an  American  University — as  notably  at  Pennsylvania ; 
the  high  disciplinary  authority  entrusted  to  the  Deans  ;  the  rigid 
educational  standard  sure  to  be  maintained  by  the  Faculty  of  Phi- 
losophy and  the  University  Council,  would  seem  to  minimize  or 
wholly  to  obviate  in  America  the  dangers  which  have  called  for  such 
extensive  reforms  at  the  English  universities.  It  is  evident  that  the 
appearance  of  this  comprehensive  policy  and  spirit  of  administration 
will  be  the  strongest  possible  inducement  to  generously  disposed  per- 
sons to  attach  their  foundations  to  old  and  vigorous  institutions,  in- 
stead of  calling  into  existence  new  establishments  whose  installation 
is  prodigiously  expensive  and  whose  destiny  is  uncertain  even  when 
hedged  in  with  the  shrewdest  legal  provisions." 

It  was  with  special  satisfaction,  therefore,  that  he  mentioned 
the  completion  and  formal  opening,  on  May  21,  1894,  of 
the  Wistar  Institute  of  Anatomy  and  Biology  as  the  crown- 
ing addition  to  the  opportunities  of  the  University  made 
during  his  administration. 

The  estabUshment  of  the  institution  marked  an  important 
step  forward  towards  the  concentration  and  co-operation  of 
scientific  work  and  workers  in  Philadelphia.  For  many  years 
Dr.  Pepper  had  been  laboring  to  this  end.  He  saw  with  pain 
the  waste  of  money  and  lives  in  the  multiplication — indeed, 
the  duplication — of  museums  in  the  city.  He  wished  to 
bring  the  scientific  institutions  of  Philadelphia  into  affiliation, 
and,  if  possible,  into  contiguity  near  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Their  co-ordination  would  reduce  their  expenses 
and  increase  their  effectiveness.  The  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  declined  the  invitation  of  the  University  thus  to 
affiliate  with  it,  much  to  the  regret  of  many  of  the  friends  ot 
both  institutions.    Dr.  Pepper's  plan  did  not  involve  a  merger 

361 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

of  endowment  funds  or  a  surrender  of  the  individuality  of  the 
several  affiliated  institutions.  Each  should  go  on  in  its  chosen 
work,  but  should  avoid  duplication  of  labor.  Persons  fa- 
miliar with  the  conservatism  of  Philadelphia  will  appreciate 
the  difficulty  of  executing  such  a  plan  as  this.  It  is  easy  to 
found  organizations  in  Philadelphia ;  it  is  difficult  to  put  an 
end  to  them. 

The  Wistar  Institute,  owing  to  the  munificence  and  philo- 
sophical insight  of  its  founder.  General  Isaac  J.  Wistar,  was 
an  ideal  consummation  of  such  a  plan  as  Dr.  Pepper  had  long 
been  meditating.  The  institute  is  independent  of  the  Uni- 
versity, though  affiliated  with  it.  It  has  its  own  endowment, 
its  own  building,  its  own  Board  of  Trustees,  and  in  no  possi- 
ble way  can  its  funds  be  appropriated  for  any  other  purpose 
than  that  to  which  its  founder  has  devoted  them.  The  strong 
personal  friendship  between  General  Wistar  and  Dr.  Pepper 
emphasized  the  influence  of  the  undertaking.  The  two  men 
were  bound  to  each  other  by  ties  of  affection,  and  each  found 
in  the  other  a  supporter  of  large  philosophical  ideas.  It  was 
not  strange,  therefore,  that  Dr.  Pepper  should  consider  Gen- 
eral Wistar's  foundation  as  a  crowning  triumph  at  the  close 
of  his  Provostship.  The  beautifiil  altruism  in  the  foundation 
might  escape  the  general  reader  were  he  not  informed  that  the 
institute,  though  established  in  honor  of  the  eminent  Dr. 
Caspar  Wistar,  was  founded  by  the  grandson  of  Dr.  Wistar's 
brother  as  a  monument,  not  of  personal  pride  or  achievement, 
but  to  a  man  greatly  honored  in  the  Commonwealth  and 
synonymous  with  the  progress  of  medical  and  surgical  science 
in  America  during  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries. 

It  would  be  easy  to  enlarge  upon  the  growth  of  the  Uni- 
versity during  the  thirteen  years  of  Dr.  Pepper's  Provost- 
ship.    Enough  has  been  said,  however,  to  indicate  the  scope 

362 


JEr.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

and  character  of  the  work  which  he  accompHshed.  It  was 
great  in  whatever  aspect  considered, — whether  tested  by  the 
extension  and  increase  in  the  number  of  courses,  by  the 
acquisition  of  land  and  the  erection  of  buildings,  by  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  students  and  of  the  Faculty,  or  by 
the  unification  of  the  University,  its  correlation  with  the 
school  systems  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  adjoining  common- 
wealths, and  its  elevation  to  the  front  rank  among  the  great 
schools  of  the  country.  All  these  things  were  done  against 
great  odds,  of  which  the  greatest  was  poverty.  Throughout 
his  career  in  the  University  Dr.  Pepper  was  compelled  to 
pursue  a  hand-to-mouth  policy  because  of  the  financial 
weakness  of  the  institution  of  which  he  was  head.  He  was 
building  for  the  future ;  he  was  boldly  anticipating  the  co- 
operation of  posterity.  Except  where  endowments  were 
obtained  (and  he  secured  many  munificent  ones)  the  current 
maintenance  of  the  institution  depended  almost  entirely  upon 
his  personal  efforts.  When  he  succeeded  to  the  Provostship 
the  annual  expenses  of  the  University  scarcely  reached  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars ;  when  he  resigned  it  they  had  at- 
tained wellnigh  the  million-dollar  mark.  He  firmly  believed 
that  the  University  if  once  organized  on  broad  and  deep 
foundations  would  receive  the  generous  support  of  the  public. 
It  is  easier  to  awaken  and  sustain  public  interest  in  a  great 
enterprise  than  in  a  small  one ;  therefore,  his  first  labor  was 
to  extend  the  lines  of  the  University  in  all  directions.  In 
doing  this  he  was  compelled  often  to  assume  great  financial 
obligations  himself  This  he  did  as  no  other  educator  in  our 
country  has  ever  done.  The  more  peremptory  became  the 
demands  of  the  great  school  under  his  care,  the  more  actively 
he  gave  himself  to  the  practice  of  his  profession.  Thus  he 
earned  great  sums  which  he  expended  for  the  welfare  of  the 

363 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

University.  Contributing  generously  iiimself,  he  was  able  to 
influence  others  to  contribute,  and  thus  to  secure  the  means 
for  carrying  out  his  academic  plans.  He  was  a  delightful 
man  to  be  associated  with  in  University  work.  He  was  in- 
capable of  a  mean  act,  and  was  never  known  to  be  swayed 
from  justice  by  the  animosities  which  break  out  even  in 
academic  circles.  No  member  of  the  Faculty  ever  suffered, 
as  long  as  he  was  Provost,  from  the  petty  jealousies  and 
passions  of  a  colleague. 

He  was  fortunate  in  his  associates,  who,  in  so  far  as  their 
own  several  departments  were  concerned,  fully  possessed  his 
confidence.  In  the  College  Department  he  was  ably  assisted 
by  Dr.  Horace  Jayne,  who,  in  1889,  became  Dean  of  the 
College  Faculty.  Since  1 884  he  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Faculty  as  head  of  the  Biological  Department,  which  may 
fairly  be  said  to  have  been  organized  through  his  efforts. 
Before  he  took  charge  of  its  interests  there  had  been  merely 
a  course  of  lectures  by  Professor  Parker  and  Dr.  Rothrock. 
Dr.  W.  P.  Wilson  and  Dr.  Ryder  were  now  brought  to  the 
University.  Not  only  did  Dr.  Jayne  guarantee  the  salary 
of  Dr.  Ryder,  but  he  also  contributed  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
to  the  Biological  Building  and  its  equipment.  These  gifts 
were  afterwards  more  than  doubled. 

Being  a  man  of  means  when,  in  1889,  he  accepted  the 
office  of  Dean  of  the  College  Faculty,  Dr.  Jayne  generously 
returned  the  salary  attached  to  the  position,  and  thereafter 
freely  gave  his  services.  The  Dean's  duties  before  that  time 
were  extremely  limited.  For  him  and  by  him  the  usefulness 
of  the  office  was  enlarged  into  a  practical  supervision  of  all 
departments.  It  was  at  his  suggestion  that  courses  in  the 
technical  schools  were  begun  in  the  freshman  year.  Work- 
ing in  close  harmony  with  the  Provost,  courses  for  teachers 

364 


/Et.  51]  THE    UNIVERSITY 

were  established,  a  laboratory  course  in  physics  was  added, 
and  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  was  organized.  Dr.  Jayne 
caused  a  restaurant  to  be  opened  for  the  convenience  of  the 
students  and  professors,  and  succeeded  not  only  in  regulating 
the  athletics,  but  in  controlling  the  cane-rushes,  bowl-fights, 
etc.,  and  in  estabhshing  a  wholesome  restraint  upon  the 
students  with  a  view  to  raising  the  tone  of  the  college. 
Credit  is  also  due  to  him  for  so  arranging  the  hours  for  all 
classes  that  in  the  middle  of  the  day  every  student  at  the 
same  hour  enjoyed  a  recess, — a  feat  in  the  accomplishment 
of  which  he  persevered  in  spite  of  much  discouragement  and 
predicted  failure. 

In  working  out  the  necessary  reforms  Dr.  Jayne's  natural 
tact,  ability,  and  calm  judgment  were  of  constant,  nay,  inesti- 
mable value  to  Dr.  Pepper,  who  was  wont  to  say  that  no 
university  in  the  country  possessed  a  dean  equal  to  Dr. 
Jayne.  The  two  men  became  close  friends,  and  in  dealing 
with  the  multiple  and  important  interests  of  which  they  had 
accepted  the  responsibility  they  always  remained  loyal  allies. 

Dr.  Pepper  was  fond  of  men  of  helpful  ideas, — practical 
people  who  could  advance  the  cause  in  hand.  The  youngest 
man  in  the  University,  if  he  had  useful  ideas,  was  welcomed 
as  a  coadjutor.  His  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature 
enabled  him  to  escape  many  of  the  pitfalls  in  the  way  of  the 
ordinary  college  president.  A  member  of  the  Faculty  who 
could  contribute  ideas  was  as  dear  to  him  as  one  who  could 
make  a  handsome  subscription.  He  was  fond  of  young  men, 
and  was  accused  of  feeding  them  on  promises.  The  fact  was 
that  the  impoverished  state  of  the  University  forbade  adequate 
salaries.  He  himself  always  lived  on  expectation  ot  plenty, 
and  many  a  devoted  man  in  the  Faculty  was  quite  satisfied 
to  live  with  him  in  the  same  joyous  hope.    If,  however,  funds 

365 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894' 

were  secured,  he  was  the  first  to  apply  them  in  a  large  reward 
for  services  rendered. 

In  the  annals  of  the  University  his  administration  will 
always  stand  forth  as  pre-eminent.  His  predecessor,  Dr. 
Stille,  toiled  faithfully  but  hopelessly.  The  great  idea  which 
animated  him  was  destined  to  be  taken  up  by  his  successor 
and  be  by  him  elaborated  and  applied.  He  transformed  the 
institution  left  by  Dr.  Stille  into  a  University ;  not  a  com- 
plete or  perfect  school,  but  a  more  complete  and  a  more  per- 
fect one  than  could  have  been  realized,  it  is  believed,  under 
any  other  man  of  his  generation.  Until  he  became  Provost, 
the  University  was  thought  of,  when  thought  of  at  all  outside 
of  Philadelphia,  merely  as  a  medical  school.  Its  excellent 
classic  opportunities  were  quite  obscure.  Like  other  schools 
dating  back  to  colonial  times,  it  had  accumulated  a  body  of 
traditions  which  were  rudely  shaken  by  the  changes  which 
followed  the  Civil  War.  Any  one  who  will  turn  to  the  cata- 
logues of  the  four  oldest  American  universities  will  discover 
that  each  underwent  a  process  of  reorganization  after  1865. 
An  opportunity  like  Dr.  Pepper's  at  Pennsylvania  existed, 
in  its  general  aspect,  at  every  university  centre  in  this  coun- 
try. He  entered  upon  the  Provostship  shortly  after  the  Cen- 
tennial Exposition,  one  of  the  high-water  marks  of  industrial 
change  in  our  country.  Departments  of  applied  science, 
history,  and  political  economy  were  soon  found  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  existence  of  any  university,  and  in  providing  for 
them  he  did  no  more  than  to  respond  to  the  demands  of  the 
times.  But  nevertheless  this  was  a  great  thing  to  do, — the 
thing  to  do,  as  time  has  proved.  He  brought  the  ancient 
school,  to  the  head  of  which  he  was  called,  into  close  touch 
with  the  people  of  his  time.  This  constituted  the  greatness 
of  his  work  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

366 


Part  III 
THE  CITIZEN 


I 

THE    FREE    LIBRARY    OF    PHILADELPHIA 
1889-1898 

DURING  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  Dr.  Pepper  was 
I  closely  identified  with  several  public  movements 
more  or  less  distinct  from  the  University.  The 
chief  of  these  were  the  Free  Library  and  the  Museums,  his 
relations  to  which  will  now  be  narrated. 

While  yet  his  uncle,  Mr,  George  S.  Pepper,*  was  living, 
Dr.  Pepper  had  been  assiduous  in  his  efforts  to  establish  a 
Free  Library  in  Philadelphia.  The  two  men  discussed  the 
question  in  all  its  aspects,  and  the  elder  finally  decided  to 
bequeath  a  portion  of  his  estate  for  the  support  of  such  an 
organization,  and  did  so  with  the  understanding  that  the 
library  should  not  form  part  of  any  institution  then  existing 
in  the  city.  He  believed  that  if  it  was  to  achieve  the  end 
he  had  in  view,  it  must  be  a  new  organization.  At  this  time 
the  library  facilities  of  the  city  were  far  behind  those  of  other 
cities  of  equal  population  in  America,  and  indeed  behind 
many  of  smaller  population.  Philadelphia  had  many  libraries, 
it  is  true,  but  they  were  close  corporations,  and  the  time 
seemed  ripe  to  depart  from  the  limitations  of  the  past  and  to 
inaugurate  a  great  reform.  Until  the  close  of  1890  there 
was  no  law  on  the  statute  books  of  the  State  which  exactly 
met  the  requirements  of  such  a  case  as  was  now  contemplated. 
The  Act  of  1887  authorized  the  formation  of  library  com- 

'  See  page  22. 
24  369 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1891 

panics  in  incorporated  towns,  and  empowered  them  to  utilize 
for  library  purposes  "  all  taxes  on  dogs  levied  and  collected 
under  existing  laws  for  borough  purposes"  within  the  Com- 
monwealth. But  even  this  provision  was  conditional  upon 
the  maintenance  of  a  free  reading-room  for  the  use  of  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  borough.^  This  law  also  empowered  any 
city  in  the  State  to  receive  donations  of  property  and  books 
for  library  purposes ;  but  the  act  proved  a  dead  letter.  Mr. 
Pepper's  will,  drawn  in  1889,  gave  to  the  trustees  of  such 
free  library  as  might  be  established  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia, east  of  the  Schuylltill  River  and  south  of  Market  Street, 
the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  together 
with  a  claim  upon  the  residue  of  his  estate.  Ultimately  the 
entire  amount  somewhat  exceeded  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars. 

While  the  death  of  his  uncle  was  yet  hourly  expected, 
Dr.  Pepper  took  the  initiative  to  secure  the  results  which  he 
believed  were  intended  under  the  will.  He  summoned  a  few 
representative  men,  and  with  them  formed  a  plan  of  action 
of  which  the  initial  step  was  to  apply  for  a  charter  for  a  free 
Ubrary.  This  was  granted  by  President  Judge  M.  Russell 
Thayer  on  the  18th  of  February,  1891.  The  corporation 
was  to  be  known  as  The  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia.  Its 
purpose  was  to  establish  and  maintain  a  general  library  in 
Philadelphia,  free  to  all  its  inhabitants.  The  interpretation 
thus  put  upon  Mr.  Pepper's  will  was  not  accepted  as  a  final 
settlement  by  all  parties  interested,  and  several  existing 
libraries  claimed  that  they  were  beneficiaries  under  the  will. 
Thus  the  hands  of  the  chartered  trustees  were  promptly  tied 
until  the  dispute  could  be  decided  by  the  courts.    Dr.  Pepper 


'  Act  of  May  23,  1887. 
370 


35i 


IEt.  48]  THE   FREE    LIBRARY 

knew  very  well  that  his  uncle's  purpose  was  not  to  benefit 
any  existing  institution,  but  he  also  knew  that  the  legacy 
was  utterly  inadequate  to  establish  a  free  library.  He 
believed  that  the  testator  had  intended  rather  that  his  legacy 
should  stimulate  others  to  efforts  and  benefactions,  and  thus 
become  the  nucleus  for  a  great  endowment. 

While  the  construction  of  the  will  was  being  passed  upon 
by  the  courts,  Dr.  Pepper  and  his  friends  decided  that  the 
best  plan  for  them  to  pursue  would  be  to  start  a  free  library 
system  and  demonstrate  its  educational  value  to  the  com- 
munity. Several  influential  citizens  were  consulted,  among 
them  the  Mayor  of  the  City,  Honorable  Edwin  S.  Stuart, 
and  the  President  of  the  Select  Council,  James  R.  Gates, 
Esq.,  with  the  result  that  an  ordinance  was  approved  by  the 
Mayor,  December  21,  1 89 1 ,  appropriating  the  sum  of  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  to  the  Board  of  Education  for  the  ensuing 
year  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  maintaining  public 
libraries  and  reading-rooms  in  the  city. 

The  Board  of  Education  selected  a  committee  from  its 
own  body  to  look  after  the  work,  and  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Wagner  Free  Institute  of  Science  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  this  committee  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
ground  floor  of  the  Institute  Building  at  Seventeenth  Street 
and  Montgomery  Avenue.  The  Actuary  of  the  Institute, 
Mr.  Thomas  L.  Montgomery,  generously  undertook  the  posi- 
tion of  librarian  of  the  branch,  and  largely  through  his  advice 
it  was  decided  to  open  it  according  to  the  latest  and  most 
approved  system  of  library  management.  The  result  was 
that  it  began  as  Branch  No.  1  of  the  Free  Library,  and  was 
opened  as  a  free  institution  for  the  residents  of  the  city.  A 
most  liberal  policy  was  adopted.  It  was  decided  that  readers 
should  be  allowed  the  freest  possible  access  to  the  shelves,  in 

371 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

pursuance  of  a  plan  which,  tried  in  many  American  cities  |^;j 
and  in  several  of  those  of  England,  had  proved  successful 
and  economical  and  at  the  same  time  most  popular  and  sat- 
isfactory to  the  public.  This  branch,  now  known  as  the 
Wagner  Institute  Branch,  was  opened  to  the  public  Octo- 
ber 18,  1892,  and  the  success  of  the  Free  Library  move- 
ment in  Philadelphia  was  promptly  assured.  For  the  year 
1893  Councils  appropriated  twenty- five  thousand  dollars  to 
the  Board  of  Education  for  the  continuance  and  development 
of  the  work,  and  a  second  branch  of  the  system  was  opened 
on  April  1 1  of  that  year,  in  a  part  of  the  premises  belonging 
to  the  South  Branch  of  the  Young  Mens'  Christian  Associa- 
tion, on  the  northwest  corner  of  Broad  and  Federal  Streets, 
and  known  as  the  Broad  and  Federal  Branch. 

The  successful  operation  of  the  plan,  thus  far,  keenly  in- 
terested Dr.  Pepper,  who  had  watched  it  with  apprehension ; 
but  he  was  now  persuaded  that  the  free-shelf  system  and  the 
lightest  rules  which  could  be  adopted  with  reasonable  pro- 
tection to  the  property  of  the  library  were  the  best  means 
of  making  it  valuable  to  the  largest  number  at  the  least  cost. 
About  this  time,  early  in  1894,  litigation  over  the  Pepper  will 
came  to  an  end.  The  courts  held  that  according  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  will  a  new  library  was  to  be  established,  and  there- 
upon the  charter  directors  proceeded  to  carry  out  the  task 
entrusted  to  them.  The  total  amount  available  at  this  time 
was  only  about  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  it  became  a 
serious  matter  how  best  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the 
foundation.  As  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  application  was 
made  to  the  city  authorities  for  a  temporary  accommodation 
for  the  Free  Library  in  the  City  Hall.  The  Public  Buildings 
Commission  cheerfully  complied  with  the  request,  and  finally 
three  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  of  the   City   Hall  were 

372 


/Et.  51]  THE   FREE    LIBRARY 

assigned  as  a  temporary  home  for  the  library.  Gifts  of 
books  were  made  by  members  of  the  Board  and  came  from 
other  quarters.  New  books  were  purchased  in  hberal  quan- 
tities, and  on  the  12th  of  March,  1894,  the  present  Free 
Library  was  thrown  open  to  the  pubhc. 

In  aid  of  the  work,  Councils  in  that  year  appropriated 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  to  be  expended  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  Library,  consisting  of  members  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  and  five  thousand  dollars  additional  to  the  Board 
of  Directors  of  the  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia  in  further- 
ance of  the  movement.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  affair  thus 
far  was  a  joint  concern,  with  two  distinct  managing  boards. 
On  the  2d  of  April  and  on  the  21st  of  May,  1894,  the 
Board  of  Education  appointed  new  branches ;  one,  at  Ridge 
and  Lyceum  Avenues,  known  as  the  Roxborough  Branch ; 
the  other  known  as  the  Frankford  Avenue  Branch.  Towards 
the  close  of  the  year  the  city,  finding  that  it  had  need  of  the 
rooms  used  by  the  Free  Library  in  the  City  Hall,  gave  notice 
that  they  must  be  vacated,  and  the  Directors  were  forced  to 
make  hasty  and  immediate  arrangements  for  a  removal. 

At  this  time  it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  one  of  the  Trus- 
tees of  the  Library,  Mr.  Samuel  Wagner,  that  the  old  Con- 
cert Hall  at  1217-1221  Chestnut  Street  could  be  rented  for 
library  purposes.  The  location  was  ideal,  but  the  building 
was  unsatisfactory,  on  account  of  its  contiguity  to  a  theatre 
and  the  limited  accommodation  it  afforded.  Dr.  Pepper 
urged  that  the  library  be  located  in  a  permanent  building  as 
soon  as  possible.  Several  suitable  sites  were  considered,  and 
Dr.  Pepper  did  all  that  was  possible  to  obtain  reasonable  offers 
for  them ;  but  in  one  and  all  obstacles  arose,  so  that  acquisition 
was  impossible.  He  was  in  constant  consultation  with  lead- 
ing members  of  the  Board,  with  the  late  President  of  the 

373 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1895] 

Pennsylvania  Railroad,  Mr.  George  B.  Roberts,  and  with 
others,  who  together  did  all  that  was  possible  to  bring  matters 
to  a  successful  issue.  Finally,  it  was  decided  that  the  Concert 
Hall  be  fitted  for  temporary  occupation.  At  the  time  it  was 
an  unused  theatre,  and  the  stage  had  to  be  removed,  the 
ceiling  completed,  a  staircase  erected,  and  many  alterations 
undertaken.  Moreover,  possession  of  some  of  the  rooms 
on  the  ground  floor  could  not  be  obtained,  though  they 
were  urgently  needed.  It  would  be  some  time  before  the 
lease  would  expire. 

Public  interest  in  the  library  reacted  upon  Councils  and 
gradually  won  doubtful  members  to  a  willingness  to  give 
public  support  to  the  new  project.  Its  promoters  were  not 
surprised  by  the  interest  awakened.  The  success  of  the  sys- 
tem thus  far,  and  the  extraordinary  interest  which  the  public 
had  taken  in  it,  persuaded  Dr.  Pepper  that  it  was  time  to 
change  the  management,  and  that  it  was  unadvisable,  if  not 
impossible,  to  continue  the  control  of  so  rapidly  growing  a 
system  under  a  corporation  originally  established  to  carry  out 
the  designs  of  one  individual  benefactor.  The  matter  was 
brought  before  the  city  authorities,  and  finally,  December  31, 
1894,  the  Mayor  approved  an  ordinance,  which,  based  on 
the  Act  of  Assembly  of  1887,  accepted  from  the  Directors 
of  the  Free  Library  their  collection  of  books,  amounting  to 
fifteen  thousand  volumes,  with  a  view  to  establishing  a  free 
library  within  the  limits  of  the  city,  according  to  the  scope 
and  meaning  of  the  law  of  1887.  On  the  same  day,  by  a 
second  ordinance.  Councils  constituted  and  appointed  twenty- 
three  persons  as  a  Board  of  Trustees,  to  be  known  as  "  The 
Trustees  of  the  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia,"  and  delegated 
in  trust  to  this  Board  the  volumes  which  the  Directors  of  the 
Free  Library  of  Philadelphia,  established  under  the  charter 

374 


^T.  52]  THE   FREE    LIBRARY 

of  1891,  had  just  presented  to  the  city.  Thus  the  library- 
forces  were  co-ordinated  and  centralized. 

The  development  of  the  library  during  the  year  1895 
was  measured  in  part  by  the  opening  of  two  branches  by 
the  Committee  on  Library  of  the  Board  of  Education,  one 
on  May  28,  the  West  Philadelphia  Branch ;  the  other  on 
October  15,  called  the  Germantown  Branch.  In  March, 
1894,  the  Free  Library  was  opened  to  the  public  in  its  new 
quarters  on  Chestnut  Street,  the  old  Concert  Hall;  and 
on  October  1,  1894,  the  College  Settlement  Branch,  at  500 
South  Seventh  Street.  On  October  30,  1895,  the  Evening 
Home  Branch  was  opened  on  South  Van  Pelt  Street. 

By  this  time  the  conclusion  was  reached  that  better  legis- 
lation was  needed  for  the  management  of  the  free  libraries, 
and  it  was  decided  to  send  the  Librarian  to  Harrisburg  to 
promote  the  passage  of  a  suitable  act.  The  person  who  had 
been  chosen  Librarian  was  Mr.  John  Thomson,^  who  had 
been  associated  with  the  library  from  its  commencement, 
and  whose  knowledge  of  books  and  of  the  management  of 
libraries  was  widely  known.  Mr.  Thomson's  mission  was 
highly  successful,  and  the  general  library  act  of  June,  1895, 
by  which  cities  of  the  first  class  in  Pennsylvania  were  author- 
ized to  levy  a  tax  and  to  make  appropriations  for  the  establish- 
ment and  maintenance  of  free  libraries,  was  the  result.  The 
act  empowers  Councils  to  levy  a  tax  annually,  not  exceeding 


^  To  aid  me  in  the  preparation  of  this  chapter,  Mr.  John  Thom- 
son wrote  a  brief  history  of  the  Free  Library  movement,  which  I 
have  freely  utilized,  and  without  which  the  chapter  could  not  have 
been  prepared.  Mr.  Thomson  was  Dr.  Pepper's  choice  as  Librarian. 
The  two  men  discovered  in  each  other  qualities  which  make  the 
basis  for  strong  friendships. 

375 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

two  mills  on  the  dollar,  on  all  taxable  property,  to  be  known 
as  the  library  fund. 

For  the  year  1895  Councils  appropriated  twenty-five  thou- 
sand dollars  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  forty-nine  thousand 
dollars  to  the  committee  of  the  Board  of  Education.  The 
new  law  was  fully  utilized. 

The  Councils  also  directed  that  the  library  appropriation 
should  henceforth  be  made  exclusively  to  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees of  the  Free  Library,  and  that  from  and  after  the  1  st  of 
January,  1896,  the  main  library  and  all  its  branches  should 
be  placed  under  the  control  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Free  Li- 
brary of  Philadelphia ;  and  to  this  Board,  for  the  year  1896, 
Councils  appropriated  the  sum  of  ninety  thousand  dollars. 

The  details  of  the  labor  which  brought  about  such  results 
within  the  short  period  of  five  years  cannot  well  be  told. 
Only  those  who  have  had  experience  can  appreciate  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  appropriations  for  new  public  interests 
from  the  City  Councils  of  Philadelphia.  Public  institutions 
already  established  and  depending  upon  the  city  for  their 
support  seemed  to  demand  all  that  could  be  secured.  But 
in  the  face  of  almost  certain  failure  for  an  ordinary  man.  Dr. 
Pepper  had  entered  the  lists,  and  through  his  unparalleled 
powers  of  co-ordination  and  concentration  brought  such  in- 
fluence and  pressure  to  bear  upon  City  Councils  as  to  secure 
the  results  named  thus  far. 

On  the  26th  of  October,  1896,  he  made  his  first  report  as 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Free  Library,  to 
the  Mayor  and  Councils  of  the  city. 

The  Free  Library,  said  he,  belongs  to  the  citizens.  It  is  now 
an  inalienable  part  of  their  civic  rights  ;  it  is  already  recognized  as  an 
invaluable  privilege.     It  is  proper  that  the  means  of  maintenance 

376 


Mt.  53]  THE    FREE    LIBRARY 

and  development  should  be  provided  by  the  city.  By  the  specific 
act  of  the  legislature  the  authority  is  given  to  make  appropriations 
and  to  order  a  special  tax  levied  for  the  purposes  of  the  Free  Library. 
He  was  able  to  announce  that  for  the  year  ending  September  30 
the  circulation  of  books  had  been  1,293,004  volumes,  and  that  at 
one  of  the  branches,  the  Wagner  Free  Institute,  it  had  reached 
the  remarkable  figure  of  266,890  volumes.  He  urged  that  ten 
additional  branch  libraries  be  established  at  a  cost  not  exceeding 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  A  suitable  central  library  building 
was  called  for, — strictly  fire-proof  in  construction,  with  ample  space 
for  a  great  store  of  books  and  with  commodious  accommodation  for 
the  numerous  readers  and  for  the  large  number  who  came  daily  to 
obtain  and  return  books.  Already  numerous  and  most  valuable  do- 
nations to  the  Library  had  been  made,  and  it  had  been  decided  that 
the  week  in  which  Franklin's  birthday  falls,  January  17,  should  be 
regarded  as  donation  week.^ 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Loan  Bill  question  came  up,  and 
Dr.  Pepper  labored  unceasingly  and,  as  events  proved,  success- 
fully to  procure  for  the  Free  Library  a  portion  of  the  eleven 
million  dollars  voted  by  the  people.  He  labored  far  beyond 
his  strength.  Day  by  day  he  had  interviews  with  every  per- 
son of  influence  within  his  reach,  and  though  his  health  was 
hopelessly  broken  and  he  was  in  danger  of  physical  col- 
lapse at  any  moment,  his  industry  knew  no  abatement. 
Finally  the  sum  of  one  million  dollars  was  authorized  to  be 
raised  on  loan,  of  which  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars  were 
to  be  applied  for  the  purchase  of  a  site  and  the  erection  of  a 
central  building,  and  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the 
erection  of  branch  buildings  and  the  purchase  of  sites.  If 
once  the  library  could  be  placed  in  a  suitable  building,  he 

'  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia,  Oc- 
tober, 1896,  pp.  1-6. 

377 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1897 

believed  that  it  would  receive  the  generous  support  of  the 
public,  and  he  looked  upon  the  action  of  Councils  in  insert- 
ing the  library  item  in  the  Loan  Bill  as  a  well-merited  ap- 
proval of  the  economical  administration  of  the  library  thus  far. 

He  was  much  gratified,  early  in  1897,  when  other  impor- 
tant buildings  belonging  to  the  city  were  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Board  for  library  purposes.  One  of  these  was 
the  colonial  mansion  in  Vernon  Park,  in  Germantown ;  and 
it  was  given  with  only  one  limitation,  that  the  ancient  front  I 
and  the  beautiful  mantels  in  the  interior  should  be  preserved, 
conditions  with  which  all  who  are  familiar  with  their  frequent 
reproductions  in  work  of  colonial  architecture  will  sympa- 
thize. About  this  time  the  Christian  Hall  Library  at  Chest- 
nut Hill  affiliated  with  the  Free  Library.  That  the  utility 
of  the  Free  Library  system  appealed  to  men  identified  with 
large  practical  affairs  was  illustrated  in  Nicetown,  a  manu- 
facturing district,  in  which  the  sum  of  one  thousand  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  was  donated  to  be  applied  in  fitting 
up  a  Branch.  The  building  utilized  had  at  one  time  been 
used  as  a  saloon  and  dancing-room.  The  whole  structure 
was  renovated,  and,  on  the  23d  of  September,  opened  to  the 
public.  On  this  occasion  Dr.  Pepper  attended  and  delivered 
an  effective  address  on  the  best  methods  to  be  used  in 
libraries  and  the  way  in  which  the  public  could  best  secure 
the  largest  results  from  the  access  afforded  to  the  books. 

For  the  year  1896  Councils  appropriated  one  hundred  and 
ten  thousand  dollars  for  the  maintenance  of  the  library. 
An  ancient  residence,  known  as  Webster  Mansion,  standing 
on  a  piece  of  ground  belonging  to  the  city,  dedicated  to  the 
public  under  the  name  of  McPherson  Park,  was  fitted  up  as 
the  McPherson  Branch,  and  was  thrown  open  to  the  public, 
July  5,  1898. 

378 


B 


JEt.  54]  THE   FREE    LIBRARY 

Very  unexpectedly  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  to  the 
public,  an  announcement  was  made  in  the  early  part  of  1898, 
at  a  social  meeting  called  by  Mr.  P.  A.  B.  Widener,  at  his 
residence,  Broad  Street  and  Girard  Avenue.  On  this  occa- 
sion Dr.  Pepper,  the  President  of  the  Free  Library,  stated 
that  he  had  been  authorized  by  Mr.  P.  A.  B.  Widener  to 
make  an  important  announcement  which  concerned  vitally 
the  interests  of  the  city.  He  felt  that  this  announcement 
was  doubly  important  coming  at  this  particular  time.  The 
public  had  been  to  some  extent  prepared  for  it.  But  the 
splendid  proportions  and  wise  provisions  of  the  benefaction 
justified  a  more  formal  statement. 

Dr.  Pepper  said  it  had  been  his  privilege  to  know  the  late 
Mrs.  Widener,  and  to  have  been  made  acquainted  with  the 
earnest  desire  which  she  and  Mr.  Widener  felt  to  aid  in 
the  great  work  of  elevating  and  rendering  more  happy  the 
members,  and  more  especially  the  younger  members,  of  the 
community.  Careful  consideration  had  been  given  to  the 
relative  advantages  of  founding  various  institutions.  Before 
the  death  of  Mrs.  Widener  it  had  been  resolved  that,  upon 
the  whole,  the  largest  and  highest  good  would  result  from 
uniting  in  the  work  of  developing  a  great  system  to  include 
a  Free  Art  Gallery,  Free  Museums,  and  a  Free  Library. 

No  more  remarkable  record,  he  added,  had  ever  been  made 
by  a  public  institution  than  was  shown  by  the  Free  Library 
of  Philadelphia.  In  four  short  years  it  had  leaped  to  the 
front  in  the  extent  of  its  circulation  and  in  the  place  it  has 
secured  in  regard  and  approval  of  the  community.  The 
remarkable  success  of  this  institution  was  clearly  due  to 
these  influences :  strict  economy  had  been  practised,  so  that 
the  largest  results  had  been  attained  with  moderate  expendi- 
ture ;  the  shelves  of  the  library  were  open  freely  to  all  citi- 

379 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

zens,  who  thus  realized  that  it  was  truly  their  library, — 
the  Free  Library  of  the  people ;  the  policy  of  establishing 
branches  in  many  sections  of  the  city  had  been  vigorously 
pursued,  so  that  already  thirteen  were  in  operation.  In  the 
great  work  of  organizing  the  educational  forces  of  this  com- 
munity the  Free  Art  Gallery,  the  Free  Museums,  and  the 
Free  Library  were  preparing  to  supplement  and  carry  on  in 
every  portion  of  the  community  the  work  of  the  common 
schools,  the  High  School,  and  the  University.  It  cannot  be 
wondered,  therefore,  that  when  the  decision  of  the  people 
was  sought  at  the  election  as  to  the  wisdom  of  increasing 
the  municipal  indebtedness  it  was  found  that  a  powerful 
influence  in  determining  the  large  majority  which  was  given 
for  this  wise  patriotic  measure  was  the  fact  that  through  its 
provisions  Philadelphia  would  soon  acquire  the  essential 
advantages  of  these  three  great  free  institutions. 

But  valuable  as  would  be  the  operations  of  the  intrinsic  I 
provisions  of  the  Loan  Bill,  when  the  items  for  these  institu- 
tions had  been  enacted  by  City  Councils  and  the  funds  pro- 
vided had  been  rendered  available,  it  was  evident  that  the 
city  was  to  be  the  gainer  in  the  immediate  future  to  a  vastly 
greater  extent.  Mr.  Peter  A.  B.  Widener  had  authorized 
Dr.  Pepper  to  announce  that  he  had  decided,  with  the  cordial 
concurrence  of  the  members  of  his  family,  that  no  more 
worthy  and  fitting  memorial  of  his  dearly  beloved  wife  could 
be  created  than  by  the  presentation  of  his  splendid  mansion 
to  the  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia,  to  be  held  in  trust  for- 
ever and  administered  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Free  Library 
system,  under  the  name  of  the  "  H.  Josephine  Widener 
Memorial  Branch." 

The  H.  Josephine  Widener  Memorial  Branch  must  always 
occupy  a  commanding  position  in  the  Free  Library  system 

380 


.Et.  55]  THE   FREE   LIBRARY 

of  Philadelphia.  Countless  thousands  will  benefit  by  the 
advantages  it  will  offer.  But  the  announcement  which  Dr. 
Pepper  was  delighted  to  be  able  to  make  emphasized  still 
more  strongly  the  necessity  for  prompt  action  in  securing  a 
suitable  fire-proof  central  building  where  could  be  housed 
safely  the  great  stores  of  books  from  which  the  numerous 
branches  of  the  Free  Library  system  were  to  be  kept  supplied. 
Certainly,  if  any  argument  were  needed  to  prove  the  wis- 
dom and  benefits  of  the  Loan  Bill,  it  was  this  splendid  first 
fruit  of  the  awakened  public  spirit  and  enterprise  which  was 
thus  so  powerfully  promoted. 

"  When  we  reflect,"  said  Dr.  Pepper,  "  upon  the  enormous  prac- 
tical advantages  which  will  accrue  to  the  city  from  the  Commer- 
cial Museums  and  the  Exposition  of  1898  ;  when  we  consider  the 
almost  priceless  treasures  which  the  city  will  receive  if  the  Art  Gal- 
lery is  constructed,  and  that  to  insure  this  there  should  be  passed 
without  delay  the  corresponding  item  ;  when  we  consider  finally  the 
necessity,  rendered  still  more  imperative  by  the  announcement  made 
here  to-night,  that  the  city  shall  go  forward  in  the  establishment  of 
her  Free  Library  system,  and  that  for  this  purpose  the  prompt  enact- 
ment of  the  library  item  is  needed,  it  would  seem  as  though  unan- 
swerable arguments  were  given  to  City  Councils  and  to  the  entire 
community  for  the  most  prompt  action  in  these  matters." 

Dr.  Pepper's  second  report  as  President  was  made  in  Jan- 
uary, 1898.^  There  were  at  this  time  eleven  branches  in 
active  operation  in  different  portions  of  the  city,  and  during 
the  year  then  closed  the  total  number  of  books  taken  out  for 
perusal  had  reached  the  enormous  aggregate  of  1,672,042,  an 


^  Second  Annual   Report  of   the  Free  Library  of  Philadelphia, 

PP-  5-7- 

381 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

increase  of  32 1 ,000  over  the  preceding  year.     Speaking  of 
the  item  of  the  Free  Library  in  the  Loan  Bill,  he  said : 

"  I  believe  it  may  be  safely  added,  moreover,  that,  while  there  was 
at  first  some  fear  that  the  magnitude  of  this  idea  might  increase 
opposition  at  the  polls,  it  is  the  judgment  of  all  who  have  made 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  feeling  of  the  community  on  the 
subject  that  the  rapidly  growing  sense  of  the  value  and  necessity 
of  the  fully  established  Free  Library  system  in  Philadelphia  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  among  the  strongest  arguments  which  gave  to 
the  Loan  Bill  its  handsome  majority." 

This  was  the  last  report  which  Dr.  Pepper  made,  and  fitly 
concluded  a  life  expended  for  the  welfare  of  the  public. 

His  work  in  the  interest  of  the  library  was  now  rapidly 
drawing  to  a  close,  for  his  health  was  hopelessly  broken,  but 
he  continued  his  untiring  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  library  to 
the  end  and  inspired  those  who  were  working  with  him  with 
much  of  the  enthusiasm  and  industry  which  he  at  all  times 
had  displayed.  The  progress  of  the  library  since  his  death  has 
emphasized  the  wisdom  of  the  broad  lines  upon  which  he 
and  his  co-laborers  insisted  it  should  be  inaugurated.  The 
pleasure  with  which  he  announced  Mr.  Widener's  gift  of  the 
magnificent  mansion  in  which  they  were  then  assembled 
would  have  been  enhanced  could  he  have  lived  to  see  the 
unique  collection  of  incunabula  placed  in  the  H.  Josephine 
Widener  Memorial  Branch  by  its  generous  giver. 

When  the  Free  Library  was  first  started  Mr.  Thomson  and 
one  young  assistant  composed  the  staff  in  City  Hall ;  in  the 
short  space  of  eight  years  (1890-1898)  that  staff  increased  to 
one  hundred  and  sixty  persons,  who  administered  a  vast 
library  system,  consisting  of  the  Free  Library  and  fourteen 
branches,  and  conducted  departments  for  the  blind  and  for 

382 


JEt.  55]  THE    FREE    LIBRARY 

children.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Free  Library  would 
never  have  existed  had  it  not  been  for  Dr.  Pepper,  but  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  without  his  aid  it  could  not  have 
assumed  the  important  position  which  it  won  in  less  than 
ten  years.  During  that  brief  time  it  accumulated  a  collec- 
tion of  upward  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 
volumes,  including  works  consulted  by  students  of  every 
profession  in  life.  During  this  time  the  inhabitants  of  Phil- 
adelphia were  bountifiilly  supplied  with  books  for  perusal  at 
home. 

The  number  of  volumes  given  out  soon  surpassed  that 
recorded  for  any  other  library  in  the  world,  in  1898  reaching 
the  enormous  total  of  1,778,387  volumes,  an  average  of  nine 
readers  for  every  volume  in  the  library.  Throughout  Dr. 
Pepper's  presidency  the  relations  between  the  Trustees  and 
all  connected  with  the  library  were  of  the  most  cordial  and 
agreeable  kind,  nor  have  these  changed  since  his  death. 
His  successor  to  the  presidency,  Mr.  William  J.  Latta,  in 
1898,  was  one  of  his  warm  admirers  and  supporters  through 
life,  and  brought  to  the  work  he  laid  down  the  same  spirit 
which  he  manifested  towards  it.  The  time  doubtless  will 
come  when  the  city  of  Philadelphia  will  erect  a  large  and 
handsome  building  for  the  work  of  the  library,  suited  to  its 
growth  for  many  years.  When  we  reflect  that  the  years 
which  Dr.  Pepper  gave  to  the  Free  Library  movement  were 
years  of  intense  physical  suffering,  and  that  all  that  he  did 
was  done  consciously  under  the  shadow  of  death,  the  altru- 
istic service  seems  finer  and  the  record  more  extraordinary. 
If  we  measure  men  by  the  character  of  the  work  into  which 
they  throw  their  souls,  even  amidst  their  dying  days,  we  find 
here  an  example  of  patient,  brave,  and  lofty  devotion  to  the 
general  welfare  rarely  paralleled  in  the  affairs  of  men. 

383 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

"  One  of  the  municipal  institutions  in  which  we  can  feel  not 
only  satisfaction,  but  pride,"  observed  the  Philadelphia  Times.,  in  an 
editorial,  April  13,  1900,  nearly  two  years  after  Dr.  Pepper's  death, 
*'  is  the  Free  Library.  This  was  because  it  was  started  at  the  right 
time  and  in  the  right  way  and  was  entrusted  to  the  right  hands.  If 
Dr.  Pepper  had  done  nothing  else  for  the  city,  his  name  must  still 
have  been  held  in  grateful  memory  for  having  given  the  final  impe- 
tus and  definite  direction  to  this  great  enterprise,  which  has  gone 
on  growing  and  expanding  and  prospering,  because  of  the  efficient 
organization  given  to  it  which  secures  it  in  intelligent  and  expert 
control  while  sharing  the  general  interest  of  the  whole  community." 


384 


/Et.  46]  UNIVERSITY   EXTENSION 


II 

UNIVERSITY    EXTENSION 

1889-1898 

LATE  in  the  fall  of  1889  ^  meeting  was  held,  one 
afternoon,  in  the  Guild  Room  at  the  Baldwin  Lo- 
comotive  Works.  Dr.  Pepper  had  been  invited 
to  speak  on  the  subject  of  University  Extension,  which 
until  then  had  been  scarcely  heard  of  in  Philadelphia.  Mr. 
George  Burnham,  Jr.,  the  president  of  the  guild,  had,  with 
others,  long  been  laboring  through  its  instrumentalities  to 
elevate  a  portion  of  the  community,  and  "  the  gospel 
of  extension,"  which  Dr.  Pepper  now  so  earnestly  deliv- 
ered, seemed  to  open  up  a  new  vista  of  possible  im- 
provement, compared  with  which  the  efforts  already  made 
appeared  aimless  and  futile.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  ad- 
dress both  Mr.  Burnham  and  Mr.  Frederick  B.  Miles^  took 
up  the  theme  with  great  sympathy ;  a  general  discussion 
followed,  and  the  beginning  of  the  University  Extension 
movement  in  Philadelphia  was  made. 

A  few  days  later  Dr.  Pepper  gave  a  dinner  in  the  interest 
of  the  movement,  at  which  Dr.  R.  G.  Moulton,  the  eloquent 
English  Extension  lecturer.  Dr.  Horace  Jayne,  the  Dean  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Mr.  James  B.  Leonard,  and 
others  were  present.     Dr.  Moulton  explained   the  workings 

'  I  am  indebted  to   Mr.  Miles  for  an  authoritative  sketch  of  the 
University  Extension  Movement,  and  to  Mr.  John  Nolen,  the  sec- 
retary, for  copies  of  the  publications  of  the  Society. 
25  385 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1890 

of  Extension  in  a  very  attractive  way,  reciting  its  history  from 
the  time  the  movement  originated  in  England,  in  1867,  and 
its  formal  adoption  by  the  University  of  Cambridge  four 
years  later.  The  dinner  resulted  in  the  organization  of  the 
movement  in  Philadelphia,  though  definite  plans  for  it 
were  not  adopted  until  February,  1890,  at  a  meeting  held 
in  Dr.  Pepper's  house.  He  accepted  the  presidency  of  the 
movement,  and  Mr.  George  Henderson  was  appointed  secre- 
tary. On  the  second  of  June  a  meeting  was  held  at  the 
Penn  Club,  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  General 
Committee  of  forty-six  men  and  women.  Dr.  Pepper  was 
soon  after  formally  chosen  president,  Mr.  Miles  treasurer, 
and  Mr.  Henderson  secretary,  and  on  the  6th  an  Executive 
Committee  of  ten  was  appointed.^  A  Finance  Committee 
also  was  created,  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  was  con- 
tributed for  current  expenses,  an  office  was  opened  at  1600 
Chestnut  Street,  and  measures  were  taken  to  enlarge  the 
membership  of  the  organization. 

At  Dr.  Pepper's  suggestion  a  fund  was  raised,  and  the  sec- 
retary, Mr.  Henderson,  was  sent  to  Oxford,  England,  to  study 
the  methods  of  the  English  Society  at  its  summer  meeting, 
and,  if  possible,  to  perfect  arrangements  for  bringing  over  I 
to  this  country  several  English  lecturers,  who  should  deliver 
courses  during  the  winter  months.  Acting  upon  Mr.  Hen- 
derson's report,  the  American  Society  invited  Mr.  Michael  E. 
Sadler,  secretary  of  the  Oxford  Society,  to  deliver  courses  of 


'  Mr.  George  Burnham,  Jr.,  Mr.  Walter  C.  Douglass,  Miss  Vir- 
ginia E.  GraefF,  Mr.  Charles  C.  Harrison,  Miss  Mary  D.  McMur- 
trie,  Rev.  John  A.  Macintosh,  Mr.  Sydney  C.  Skidmore,  Mr. 
Samuel  Wagner,  Mr.  Joseph  G.  Rosengarten,  and  Rev.  Charles 
Wood. 

386 


/Et.  47]  UNIVERSITY   EXTENSION 

lectures  on  Sociology  in  Philadelphia  during  the  winter  of 
1891-92. 

A  public  meeting  was  called  in  Association  Hall,  Fifteenth 
and  Chestnut  Streets,  November  19,  1890,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  increasing  the  membership  of  the  Society  and  of 
acquainting  the  public  with  the  aims  and  objects  of  the 
new  movement.  About  twelve  hundred  persons  were  present, 
chiefly  of  the  class  interested  in  culture  and  progress.  Dr. 
Pepper  presided.  Among  the  notable  speeches  on  this  occa- 
sion were  those  by  him,  by  the  president  of  Princeton  Uni- 
versity, and  by  Dr.  Moulton,  who  at  that  time  was  about 
to  inaugurate  in  Philadelphia  his  first  lectures  on  literature. 
The  effect  of  Dr.  Moulton's  speech  was  immediate.  Many 
joined  the  Society,  and  its  purpose  was  more  widely  and 
correctly  understood. 

The  University  Lecture  Association,  which  Dr.  Pepper 
had  inaugurated,  an  account  of  which  has  already  been 
given,  had  prepared  the  way  for  the  institution  of  the  Uni- 
versity Extension  movement.  Finally,  in  1895,  the  Lecture 
Association  became  merged  in  the  University  Extension 
Society. 

The  work  of  the  University  Extension  Society  may  be  said 
to  have  begun  in  November,  1890,  with  a  course  of  lectures 
on  Chemistry,  by  Dr.  C.  Handford  Henderson,  followed  by 
one  on  Astronomy,  by  Professor  Young,  of  Princeton,  and 
by  another  on  Shakespeare,  by  Dr.  Moulton.  Mr.  Sadler 
delivered  a  course  the  following  year. 

In  April,  1891,  Dr.  Pepper  retired  from  the  presidency, 
remaining,  however,  honorary  president,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Professor  Edmund  J.  James,  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Until  this  time  the  whole  work  of  organizing  the 
Society  upon  a  permanent  basis,  of  identifying  its  interests 

387 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

with  those  of  the  community,  of  securing  information  from 
the  parent  Society  in  England,  of  selecting  lecturers,  issuing 
Extension  literature,  and  in  general  of  directing  all  the  details 
of  the  movement,  had  been  carried  on  by  Dr.  Pepper.  The 
appointment  of  Professor  James  to  the  presidency  was  made 
in  order  to  relieve  Dr.  Pepper,  and  at  the  same  time  to  secure 
the  services  of  an  eminent  educator.  Though  retired  from 
active  participation  in  the  work  of  the  Society,  Dr.  Pepper 
continued  to  attend  its  principal  meetings  and  to  assist  the 
president  and  secretary  with  advice  and  counsel. 

In  March,  1892,  the  Society  was  incorporated,  and  its 
name  changed  from  "  The  Philadelphia  Society  for  the  Exten- 
sion of  University  Teaching,"  to  the  more  appropriate  title 
"  The  American  Society  for  the  Extension  of  University 
Teaching."^  From  this  time  forward  the  work  of  the 
Society  was  carried  on  regularly  and  progressively. 

In  March  and  April,  1892,  Mr.  H.  J.  MacKinder,  a  dis- 
tinguished lecturer  for  the  Oxford  Extension  Society  in  Eng- 
land, came  to  America  and  lectured,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
American  Society,  upon  "  Geography  in  Relation  to  Com- 
merce." In  1893  the  Rev.  W.  Hudson  Shaw,  also  one  of 
the  Oxford  lecturers,  came  to  America  for  the  first  time,  and 
began  a  series  of  lectures  which  were  destined  to  extend 
over  several  years.     During  all   this  time  Dr.  Pepper  con- 


'  The  five  original  incorporators  were  Dr.  Pepper,  Professor 
James,  Mr.  Chares  E.  Bushnell,  Mr.  Samuel  Wagner,  and  Mr. 
Joseph  G.  Rosengarten.  On  the  thirteenth  of  June  they  elected 
ten  additional  members, — namely,  Messrs.  George  F.  Baer,  John 
H.  Converse,  Charles  C.  Harrison,  Craige  Lippincott,  Rev.  John 
S.  Macintosh,  Frederick  B.  Miles,  Justus  C.  Stravvbridge,  Charle- 
magne Tower,  Stuart  Wood,  and  the  Rev.  Charles  Wood. 

388 


JEt.  so]  UNIVERSITY    EXTENSION 

tinued  actively  interested  in  the  work  of  the  Society,  and 
was  its  leader  and  guide  until  January,  1895,  when,  convinced 
that  it  was  able  to  develop  further  without  his  immediate 
attention,  he  determined  to  resign  the  office  of  honorary 
president.  He  continued  his  subscription  to  the  support  of  the 
work.  In  his  letter  of  resignation  he  urged  upon  the  Society 
the  election  of  Mr.  Charles  C.  Harrison  as  his  successor. 
Several  interesting  details  are  brought  out  in  the  following 
correspondence : 

"  Philadilphia,  January  3,  1895. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Pepper  : 

"  I  have  your  letter  of  to-day,  and  thank  you  for  informing  me 
of  your  decision  in  reference  to  the  honorary  presidency  of  the 
American  Society. 

"  It  must  be  highly  gratifying  to  you  to  have  succeeded  in  inau- 
gurating a  free  library  system  in  Philadelphia,  an  undertaking  in 
which  so  many  have  failed.  It  cannot  be  forgotten,  either,  that 
you  were  the  father  of  the  University  Extension  Society,  which, 
as  far  as  I  can  judge,  has  attained  a  greater  measure  of  success  than 
any  similar  venture  in  this  country. 

"  Your  suggestion  should  certainly  have  the  most  respectful  con- 
sideration of  our  Board  of  Directors.  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  see 
Mr.  Harrison  as  honorary  president,  if  it  is  agreeable  to  him  to  serve. 

"  Personally,  I  very  much  appreciate  your  willingness  to  continue 
upon  our  Board  and  your  continued  interest  in  the  Society. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"  Charles  A.  Brinley."  ' 

♦'Philadelphia,  February  16,  1895. 

"  Dr.  William  Pepper  : 

"  Dear  Sir, — At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of 
the  American  Society  for  the  Extension  of  University  Teaching, 
your  letter,  in  which  you  offer  your  resignation  as  honorary  presi- 

^  MS. 

389 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

dent  of  the  Society,  was  read  to  the  Board  by  the  president.  The 
motives  for  your  action,  as  stated  in  the  letter,  were  respectfully 
considered  by  the  Board,  and  it  has  voted  to  defer  to  your  wishes 
by  accepting  your  resignation. 

"  We  were  appointed  a  committee  to  communicate  to  you  the 
action  of  the  Board  and  to  express  for  the  Directors  their  high 
appreciation  of  your  services  to  the  Society,  which  owes  its  incep- 
tion to  your  public  spirit  and  its  establishment  as  an  important  edu- 
cational agency  to  you  and  the  associates  whom  you  have  gathered 
around  you.  On  behalf  of  the  Directors,  we  wish  to  say  further 
that  it  is  most  gratifying  to  them  to  know  that  you  will  still  serve 
upon  the  Board. 

"  We  are,  with  much  respect, 
"  Very  truly  yours, 

"  Eugene  Delano, 

"  Charles  A.  Brinley."  ^ 

The  civic  interests  at  stake  at  this  time — namely,  the 
establishment  of  the  Free  Library,  of  the  Philadelphia  Mu- 
seum, and  of  the  Museum  of  Archeology,  the  securing 
of  an  adequate  supply  of  pure  water  for  the  city,  and  the 
extension  of  the  work  of  the  University,  to  all  of  which 
objects  Dr.  Pepper  was  deeply  devoted — made  exhaustive 
drafts  upon  his  time  and  strength,  and  he  decided  to  with- 
draw from  most  of  the  offices  and  directory  positions  which 
he  held,  in  order  to  concentrate  his  energies  upon  these  large 
municipal  interests.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  withdrew 
from  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Society  for  University 
Extension. 

Professor  James  continued  president  of  the  Society  until 
November,    1895,   when,   on   account   of  his   election   as 

^MS. 

390 


iET.  52]  UNIVERSITY    EXTENSION 

Director  of  Extension  work  at  the  University  of  Chicago, 
he  resigned.  In  the  following  May  he  was  succeeded  by 
Mr.  Charles  A.  Brinley,  who  had  acted  meanwhile  as  presi- 
dent pro  tern.  Mr.  John  Nolen,  an  alumnus  of  the  Uni- 
versity, was  elected  secretary. 

In  its  earlier  efforts  the  Society  made  the  mistakes  which 
new  enterprises  usually  find  it  impossible  to  avoid.  How- 
ever, it  learned  by  experience,  its  purposes  were  noble,  its 
friends  were  devoted  to  the  public  welfare,  and  its  methods 
and  practice  soon  proved  their  altruistic  character.  At  first 
the  Society  had  to  depend  entirely  for  its  supply  of  lecturers 
upon  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  neighboring  edu- 
cational institutions,  but  as  the  years  passed  it  was  enabled  to 
secure  its  own  staff  of  lecturers. 

There  was  a  time  in  its  history  when  some  very  well- 
meaning  American  schools  and  colleges  were  decidedly  hos- 
tile to  the  movement.  They  seemed  to  think  that  University 
Extension  was  intended  to  supplant  them  in  the  good  graces 
of  the  public  and  to  substitute  other  instruction  for  that 
which  they  were  prepared  to  impart.  Happily,  this  misun- 
derstanding of  the  scope  and  purpose  of  the  movement  was 
corrected  in  a  few  years,  and  the  schools  learned  that  wherever 
University  Extension  was  best  supported  there  were  to  be 
found  the  homes  of  college  men,  or  of  people  who  were 
planning  to  send  their  sons  and  daughters  to  higher  institu- 
tions of  learning. 

During  Dr.  Pepper's  lifetime  the  American  Society  minis- 
tered to  the  public  in  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  four- 
teen courses  of  lectures,  aggregating  ten  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty-four  separate  lectures.  These  were  delivered 
in  three  hundred  and  forty-three  centres,  of  which  one  hundred 
and  four  were  outside  of  Pennsylvania, — that   is,  in  New 

391 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  the  District  of  Columbia, 
Virginia,  West  Virginia,  Ohio,  New  York,  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Maine.  The  subjects 
thus  brought  to  the  hearing  of  nearly  two  millions  of  people 
included  science,  literature,  art,  history,  political  economy, 
and  psychology,  and  were  presented  by  upward  of  one  hun- 
dred different  lecturers.  For  each  lecture  course  an  appro- 
priate syllabus  was  used  by  the  Society,  which  in  this  way 
contributed  to  the  systematic  study  of  the  subject  presented. 
Many  of  these  syllabi  found  their  way  into  schools,  colleges, 
and  educational  societies. 

During  the  critical  years  of  its  life  University  Extension 
in  Philadelphia  and  vicinity  owed  its  existence  and  its  vitality 
to  the  orginizing  power  of  Dr.  Pepper.  The  work  of  the 
American  Society  was  carried  on  and  maintained  by  the 
generous  devotion  of  a  comparatively  small  group  of  men 
and  women  of  Philadelphia  and  its  vicinity,  who  by  their 
own  subscriptions  enabled  the  Society  to  exist.  Many 
centres  were  organized  which  were  unable  to  meet  the  entire 
expense  of  sustaining  a  course  of  lectures.  In  such  cases 
the  parent  Society  has  contributed  and  made  the  success  of 
the  work  possible.  A  most  valuable  feature  developed  by 
the  Society  was  the  travelling  library,  a  collection  of  books 
bearing  directly  upon  the  courses  offered,  and  sent  free  of 
charge  to  the  centres  which  chose  these  courses.  By  means 
of  this  generous  provision  small  and  relatively  poor  centres 
were  enabled  to  enjoy  the  library  assistance  usually  to  be  had 
only  in  large  towns. 

Beginning  as  an  experiment.  University  Extension  in  the 
short  space  of  ten  years  proved  itself  a  practical  and  efficient 
means  of  securing  and  stimulating  adult  education.  Its 
work  was  closely  analogous  to  that  of  the  Free  Library.     It 

392 


JEt,  52]  UNIVERSITY   EXTENSION 

I  was  a  pioneer  in  the  educational  field.  It  was  never  intended 
:i  to  take  the  place  of  university  instruction,  but  to  offer  to  all 
j  the  means  for  that  education  in  after  life  which  it  is  realized 
is  so  necessary  to  keep  one's  ideals  high  and  vitalizing.  As 
its  efforts  and  successes  widened  from  year  to  year,  it  became 
another  monument  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Pepper,  who  was 
the  leading  mind  in  establishing  it  in  America. 


393 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 


III 

THE   PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

1893-1898 

FROM  the  time  of  the  inception  of  the  Philadelphia 
Museums  until  his  last  day  in  the  city  Dr.  Pepper 
labored  unceasingly  and  most  effectively  for  their  wel- 
fare. These  museums  were  the  culmination  of  a  movement 
begun  at  the  University  in  1893  to  secure  for  an  economic 
museum  in  Philadelphia  a  collection  of  raw  products  remain- 
ing in  Chicago  at  the  close  of  the  Columbian  Exposition. 
To  this  undertaking  Dr.  Pepper  gave  his  warm  support.  An 
appropriation  of  ten  thousand  dollars  was  obtained  from  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Meehan.  Dr.  Pepper  immediately  entrusted  the  collecting 
of  material  to  Professor  Wilson,  at  that  time  Director  of  the 
Department  of  Biology  in  the  University.  Meanwhile  the 
interests  of  the  museum  were  carefully  attended  to  by  Dr. 
Pepper  himself  in  Philadelphia  and  Washington.  The 
mayor  of  Philadelphia,  Honorable  Edwin  Stuart,  entered 
enthusiastically  into  the  movement,  as  did  influential  mem- 
bers of  Councils.  The  ministers  and  ambassadors  of  foreign 
countries  in  Washington  were  asked  for  the  gift  of  exhibits 
at  Chicago  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  that  an  economic 
museum  might  be  organized  for  the  purpose  primarily  of 
advancing  the  interests  of  trade  between  foreign  countries 
and  our  own.  Special  attention  was  given  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Latin- American  repubUcs.     As  the  under- 

394 


JEr.  50]        THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

taking  went  on,  its  importance  was  more  clearly  recognized. 
The  original  plan,  merely  to  secure  for  the  Park  Museum 
a  few  economic  objects  left  over  at  Chicago,  had  in  a  few 
months,  under  the  quickening  spirit  of  Dr.  Pepper's  compre- 
hension of  results,  developed  into  a  system  of  museums, 
educational,  commercial,  and  sociological.  From  this  time, 
March,  1 894,  until  Dr.  Pepper's  departure  for  California,  on 
the  seventh  ot  July,  1898,  the  museums  engrossed  a  large 
part  of  his  attention. 

Professor  Wilson  met  with  extraordinary  success  at 
Chicago.  He  secured  twenty-four  car-loads  of  m»aterial, 
which  he  sent  to  Philadelphia.  Such  an  influx  had  not 
been  dreamed  of,  and  the  museum  authorities  found  their 
storage  resources  taxed  to  the  utmost.  Mr.  Weightman 
generously  gave  the  use  of  two  large  buildings  on  Market 
Street,^  rent  free,  for  two  years.  The  Public  Building 
Commission  gave  the  authorities  the  temporary  use  of  nine- 
teen rooms  in  the  City  Hall,  and  the  Allison  Manufacturing 
Company  stored  several  car-loads  of  exhibits  for  a  year  or 
more  in  their  shops.  At  this  moment  Dr.  Pepper  took  up 
the  question  of  organization,  and  gave  to  the  new  enterprise 
the  name  "  The  Philadelphia  Museums."  Its  scope  was  at 
first  meant  to  include  a  Museum  of  Pedagogy  as  well  as  of 
Economic  Products.  The  Park  Commission,  with  the  aid 
of  the  Board  of  Education,  had  controlled  the  enterprise  up 
to  this  time,  but  now  it  organized  with  its  own  officers  and 
assumed  a  distinct  character. 

The  Japanese  exhibit  brought  from  Chicago  was  arranged 
and  displayed  at  the  School  of  Design  for  Women,  the  Ger- 
man educational  exhibit  at  the  Girls'  Normal  School,  and  the 


^  1919-1921  Market  Street. 
395 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [i894i| 

Russian  and  Liberian  at  the  School  of  Industrial  Art.  In 
the  spring  of  1894  the  Park  Commission  requested  to  be  ' 
relieved  from  further  duty,  as  did  also  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. Dr.  Pepper,  after  many  conferences  with  public  men, 
secured  the  enactment,  on  the  15th  of  June,  1894,  of  a 
city  ordinance  which  created  "  a  board  of  trustees  for  es-  j  ^ 
tablishing  a  public  museum,"  and  placed  in  its  custody  the  * 
collections  already  made.  Thus,  by  a  single  stroke,  he  trans- 
formed a  crude  enterprise  into  a  city  institution, — for  by  the 
terms  of  the  ordinance  the  Museum  Board  consisted,  ex 
officio,  of  the  mayor  of  the  city ;  the  president  of  each 
branch  of  City  Councils  ;  the  president  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Education  and  of  the  Park  Commission,  elected  by 
these  bodies  respectively ;  a  citizen  to  be  elected  annually 
by  each  branch  of  City  Councils,  and  eight  other  persons. 
The  Museum  Board  was  authorized  to  secure  funds  and  a 
suitable  site  for  museum  buildings  and  was  given  power  to 
execute  the  purposes  of  the  Museum  as  indicated  by  the 
ordinance.  From  this  time  the  city  of  Philadelphia  made 
appropriations  for  the  collection  and  care  of  material. 

In  the  formation  of  the  Museum  Board  Dr.  Pepper's 
counsel  was  a  controlling  influence,  and  his  unselfish  nature 
was  displayed  in  its  wonted  activity.  His  chief  purpose  was 
to  organize  a  great  public  institution  which  should  be  a  per- 
manent feature  of  Philadelphia's  civic  life.  No  one  else 
was  thought  of  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  new  undertaking, 
and  on  the  20th  of  June,  1894,  he  was  elected  president  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees,  an  office  in  which  he  continued  to 
serve  until  his  death. 

For  many  years  he  had  been  laboring  to  concentrate  the 
energies  and  opportunities  of  the  city  and  to  co-ordinate  its 
educational  institutions.     For  thirty  years  he  had  been  labor- 

396 


^T.  51]        THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

ing  to  group  about  the  University  such  institutions  as  the 
Philosophical  Society,  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and 
the  Public  Libraries.  The  new  Museum  offered  another  oppor- 
tunity for  practical  work  and  co-ordination  with  institutions 
already  founded.  Through  his  influence  City  Councils  now 
granted  several  generous  appropriations,^  though  as  yet  the 
Museum  possessed  not  a  foot  of  land  nor  an  adequate  build- 
ing. Happily,  early  in  the  year  1895,  the  offices  owned  and 
formerly  occupied  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company, 
on  Fourth  Street,  were  secured  for  museum  purposes  by  Dr. 
Pepper,  and  in  August  the  new  institution  was  removed 
thither.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  generously 
granted  the  use  of  its  buildings,  thus  securing  to  the  Museum 
the  use  of  adequate  floor  space,  divided  into  eighty  rooms. 
With  the  removal  to  Fourth  Street  the  whole  future  of 
the  Museum  was  changed.  It  was  already  a  recognized 
city  institution,  dependent  upon  Councils  for  maintenance 
and  enlargement.  Now  it  had  its  suitable  habitation,  could 
begin  its  work,  and  make  its  influence  felt  in  the  commer- 
cial world. 

The  objects  of  the  Museum  may  be  stated  briefly  as  fol- 
lows :  To  gather  from  all  parts  of  the  world  and  make 
immediately  available  information  concerning  trade ;  to 
place  on  exhibition  samples  of  all  manufactured  goods 
sold  in  foreign  countries,  in  order  practically  to  demon- 
strate to  American  manufacturers  the  requirements  ot  the 
world's  markets  and  the  competition  which  must  be  met 
in  them ;  to  place  on  exhibition  samples  of  the  world's 
natural  products,  in  order  that  American  manufacturers,  mer- 
chants, and   consumers    may  know    where   to  obtain  those 


^  1894,  March,  ;^25,ooo  ;   1895,  $20,000  ;   1896,  $65,000. 

397 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

which  are  most  useful  and  desirable  ;  and,  finally,  to  advance 
the  standard  of  commercial  education  in  the  United  States. 

It  was  not  in  any  sense  a  money-making  institution,  as 
from  the  inception  of  its  collections  it  has  been  absolutely 
free  to  the  public.  Some  of  its  friends  thought  that  in  se- 
curing ample  quarters  and  the  support  of  Councils  it  had 
acquired  its  full  place  in  the  world.  Not  so  thought  Dr. 
Pepper  and  the  active  spirits  in  the  new  organization ;  a 
larger  concept  of  its  scope  and  purpose  animated  them. 
The  institution  should  be  made  useful  to  every  manufacturer 
in  America ;  but  to  execute  so  large  a  plan  implied  ceaseless 
attention  to  details  and  to  every  manufacturing  interest  in  the 
country.  More  than  this,  it  required  the  co-operation  of  the 
State  Legislature  and  of  Congress.  Dr.  Pepper's  wide  ex- 
perience in  public  affairs  put  the  new  institution  in  a  favor- 
able light  at  Harrisburg  and  Washington,  and  through  his 
influence  measures  were  taken  to  secure  State  and  national 
appropriations.  He  took  the  whole  direction  of  the  Museum 
movement  now  more  completely  into  his  own  hands,  and,  as 
usual  with  him  in  all  his  undertakings,  he  devoted  himself 
to  its  minutest  details. 

The  search  for  a  site  now  began.  He  suggested  that  the 
sloping  front  of  the  Almshouse  grounds,  a  portion  of  Block- 
ley  farm,  might  be  utilized,  and  was  instrumental  in  bringing 
this  property  into  the  possession  of  the  Museums.  At  a 
conference  of  representatives  of  the  new  movement  and  the 
Department  of  Archaeology  of  the  University,  the  trustees 
of  the  University  agreed  that  the  sixteen  acres  lying  directly 
in  front  of  the  Almshouse  should  be  assigned  to  the  Phila- 
delphia Museums,  provided  City  Councils  would  pass  the 
requisite   ordinance.     This  was  done  on  the  27th  of  June, 

1895. 

398 


^T.  52]        THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

Dr.  Pepper's  plans  for  the  use  of  this  portion  of  the 
Bleckley  farm,  it  will  be  remembered,  dated  back  many 
years.  On  July  6,  1883,  under  his  influence.  Councils  had 
assigned  the  land  "  for  public  uses  as  a  park  and  for  mu- 
seums." These  sixteen  acres,  now  designated  as  museum 
property,  were  a  portion  of  this  old  park  assignment.  On 
the  10th  of  October,  1889,  Councils  granted  another  portion 
of  the  Blockley  farm  for  a  botanical  garden,  and  on  the  2  2d 
of  November,  1897,  still  a  larger  plot,  thirty  acres,  lying  be- 
tween the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  Schuylkill  River. 
This  made  a  museum  domain  of  forty-six  acres  adjoining 
the  University,  and  carried  out  Dr.  Pepper's  old  plan  of 
concentrating  and  co-ordinating  the  educational  facilities  of 
Philadelphia.  The  next  step  was  to  erect  suitable  museum 
buildings  which  should  enable  the  administration  to  work 
out  the  ideas  exemplified  at  South  Kensington,  England. 
Architects  were  consulted,  and  Dr.  Pepper  found  himself 
again  immersed  in  problems  of  construction.  Through  his 
influence  the  city  appropriation  in  1896  was  $200,000.^ 

In  1897  Councils  granted  $75,000,  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania $50,000,  and  in  1898  Congress  $300,000.  In  the 
aggregate  $575,000  were  to  be  expended  in  the  erection  of 
permanent  buildings.  Early  in  1897  it  was  decided  that  a 
National  Exports  Exposition  should  be  held  two  years  later, 
in  connection  with  the  Museums,  for  the  purpose  of  display- 
ing the  manufactures  of  the  United  States  and  bringing  them 
to  the  attention  of  foreign  countries. 

This  exposition  had  two  objects, — first,  to  make  a  full  and 
elaborate  display  to  foreign  customers  of  the  manufacturing 
interests  of  the  United  States ;  and,  secondly,  to  secure  funds 

»  July  16. 

399 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

with  which  to  carry  on  the  erection  of  the  group  of  museum 
buildings.  It  was  determined  to  appeal  to  Congress  for  aid. 
The  scope  and  purpose  of  the  Museum  and  of  the  proposed 
National  Exposition  of  American  Products  and  Manufactures 
were  brought  forcibly  to  the  attention  of  the  proper  com- 
mittees, and  by  no  one  more  successfully  than  by  Dr.  Pepper, 
who  appeared  before  the  House  Committee  on  Interstate  and 
Foreign  Commerce,  and  made  the  following  statement : 

"  The  Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum  has  been  from  the  start 
truly  and  wholly  a  public,  municipal,  and  national  organization.  It 
began  with  the  acquisition  of  extensive  and  valuable  collections  of 
natural  products  at  the  Chicago  Exposition.  Upon  application 
being  made  to  the  ministers  of  all  the  countries  exhibiting  in  Chi- 
cago, and  the  faith  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  being  pledged  for  the 
permanent  care  and  custody  of  the  collections,  if  presented  to  her, 
orders  were  sent  to  the  commission  at  Chicago  to  turn  over  the 
vast  quantities  of  natural  products  from  many  countries  to  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  which  were  later  placed  there  on  exhibition.  There 
has  never  been  the  least  private  or  business  or  proprietary  interest 
or  feature  about  the  work. 

"  In  order  to  display  the  products  properly  it  was  necessary  to 
secure  extensive  buildings,  pending  the  construction  of  the  perma- 
nent buildings  of  the  Museum.  The  directors  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  granted  the  occupancy  of  their  Fourth  Street  offices  on 
most  generous  terms.  These  buildings  contained  eighty  large  cham- 
bers. Many  of  the  members  of  the  committee  have  visited  the 
Museums  and  can  confirm  what  I  say,  that  every  room  is  crowded 
to  the  utmost,  that  every  hall  and  corridor  is  lined  with  exhibits, 
and,  in  addition,  there  are  hundreds  of  great  cases  of  valuable 
products  awaiting  proper  installation  and  display.  Nowhere  in  the 
world  is  there  so  complete  an  exhibit  of  the  natural  products  of  all 
countries  as  is  there  found.  These  products  are  arranged  for  the 
special  use  of  manufacturers  and  merchants.     Not  only  every  week, 

400 


JEr.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA   MUSEUMS 

but  every  day,  the  representatives  of  the  great  business  firms  all 
over  the  country  visit  these  collections  and  study  them  to  obtain 
practical  information  to  guide  their  busmess  operations.  Then 
besides  the  collection  of  natural  products,  there  is  another  series 
showing  samples  of  nearly  all  the  goods  that  are  manufactured 
abroad  in  England  and  Germany  and  France  and  Belgium  for  ex- 
port to  Africa  and  South  America  and  China  and  the  other  great 
neutral  markets  into  which  the  American  manufacturer  is  anxious 
to  extend  his  trade.  This  series  shows  the  exact  articles  made,  with 
data  as  to  how  much  it  costs  to  produce  them,  how  much  it  costs 
to  transport  them  to  the  country  for  which  they  are  intended,  what 
import  duties  there  are,  what  is  the  price  at  which  they  can  be  sold, 
what  is  the  extent  of  trade  in  each  article,  what  is  the  amount  of 
population  likely  to  use  such  articles,  and  other  important  informa- 
tion, so  that  our  business  men  have  every  fact  before  them  to  enable 
them  to  decide  whether  they  can  enter  into  competition  profitably 
with  such  goods. 

"  Then,  to  bring  all  this  still  more  closely  and  directly  to  the 
manufacturer,  there  is  a  bureau  of  information,  which  is  supported 
by  the  annual  subscriptions  of  those  firms  that  desire  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  its  privileges.  Between  twelve  and  thirteen  hundred 
trade  journals  are  received  regularly,  printed  in  all  languages  ;  also, 
all  the  consular  reports  of  the  United  States  and  foreign  govern- 
ments, as  well  as  all  the  statistical  publications  bearing  on  com- 
merce issued  by  these  governments.  There  is  a  large  corps  of 
trained  clerks,  who  speak  these  languages  fluently,  engaged  con- 
stantly in  translating  and  reducing  to  compact  form  for  trade  bulle- 
tins the  facts  and  information  contained  in  these  publications.  This 
information  is  supplemented  by  a  most  extensive  correspondence 
with  over  thirty-five  thousand  foreign  buyers,  located  in  most  all 
parts  of  the  world. 

"  From  the  beginning  of  this  work  the  State  Department  recog- 
nized what  valuable  assistance  the  Commercial  Museum  could  render 
to  the  entire  consular  service  of  the  country,  and,  in  turn,  how 
26  401 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

much  help  the  consular  service  could  render  to  our  business  men 
through  the  Museums.  So  that,  beginning  with  Secretary  Gresh- 
am's  administration,  down  to  the  present  time,  the  work  of  the 
Commercial  Museum  has  been  recognized  as  clearly  a  national  work, 
and  our  consuls  have  been  requested  to  render  all  assistance  in  their 
power.  In  fact,  the  official  relationship  existing  between  the  Phila- 
delphia Commercial  Museum  and  the  State  Department  is  so  close, 
and  the  mutual  advantage  of  this  association  and  co-operation  so 
great,  that  the  connection  now  amounts  to  practical  governmental 
supervision  of  the  work  which  the  Museums  perform. 

"  The  Commercial  Museum  sends  out  special  commissioners 
to  all  the  neutral  markets  of  the  world,  and  they  get  full  reports, 
which  cannot  be  had  from  any  other  source. 

"  Now,  it  is  because  our  practical  manufacturers  have  expe- 
rienced the  benefits  of  this  work  that  they  are  supporting  it  so 
strongly.  It  is  the  settled  policy  of  the  authorities  of  the  Museum 
not  to  apply  to  Congress  for  a  single  dollar  of  aid  in  maintaining 
the  work.  If  the  work  is  well  done  and  of  real  value  to  the  manu- 
facturers, they  will  surely  support  it.  The  whole  management  of 
the  Commercial  Museum  is  based  on  this  broad  national  idea. 

"  Chambers  of  commerce,  boards  of  trade,  and  commercial  or- 
ganizations of  this  country  are  in  official  relation  with  the  institu- 
tion, and  every  chamber  of  commerce  appoints  two  of  its  leading 
rrjembers  as  its  representatives  on  the  governing  board  of  the 
Museums.  This  board  meets  annually  in  Philadelphia,  elects  the 
officers,  appoints  the  executive  committee,  lays  down  the  policy  for 
the  ensuing  year,  and  entrusts  the  carrying  out  of  this  policy  to  the 
local  board  of  trustees,  in  conjunction  with  the  officers  of  the  gov- 
erning board. 

"  Not  only  the  commercial  organizations  of  the  United  States 
are  thus  represented  in  the  work  of  the  Commercial  Museums,  but 
nearly  all  the  chambers  of  commerce  of  this  continent  hold  official 
relations  with  this  institution.  The  work  began  by  international 
co-operation  ;   its  full  success  requires  cordial  international  co-oper- 

402 


1 


^T.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

ation,  and  this  can  be  secured  only  by  our  receiving  cordial  national 
recognition. 

"  In  addition  to  the  governing  board  of  the  Museums,  there  is 
the  diplomatic  advisory  board,  composed  of  the  ministers  represent- 
ing at  Washington  the  countries  which  offer  to  our  manufacturers 
the  great  new  markets  of  the  world.  This  board  meets  regularly, 
and  the  authorities  of  the  Museums  report  fully  to  them  upon  the 
conditions  and  prospects  and  needs  of  the  work. 

"  The  expense  of  this  great  work  has  been  defrayed  in  the  first 
place  by  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  which,  with  the  greatest  liberality, 
has  assigned  a  valuable  tract  of  land,  sixteen  acres  in  extent,  within 
a  few  minutes'  ride  by  street-car  from  the  City  Hall,  as  a  site  for 
the  permanent  buildings ;  and  it  has  also  appropriated  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Museums  in  successive  years,  so  that  the  total  ex- 
ceeds ;^350,ooo  ;  and  at  the  present  time  there  is  pending  before 
the  City  Councils  a  further  appropriation  of  ^200,000  towards  the 
permanent  buildings.  All  this  has  been  done,  although  it  is  clearly 
recognized  that  the  manufacturers  of  every  part  of  the  country  have 
just  as  free  access  to  all  the  advantages  of  the  institution  as  those  in 
Philadelphia.  So,  too,  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  has  put  her  feet 
firmly  in  the  path  of  supporting  this  great  work.  At  the  last  ses- 
sion of  the  legislature  it  was  found  that  the  State  finances  were  re- 
stricted, and  that  the  demands  were  unusually  heavy,  so  appropria- 
tions had  to  be  cut  down.  But  the  State  did  appropriate  1^50,000 
towards  the  permanent  buildings  of  the  Commercial  Museum,  and  it 
is  distinctly  understood  that  at  subsequent  sessions  of  the  legislature 
further  and  more  liberal  appropriations  will  be  made. 

"  We  have  been  urged  time  and  time  again  to  apply  to  the  legis- 
latures of  other  States  for  appropriations,  just  as  we  have  been  urged 
to  come  to  the  Congress  for  annual  appropriations  to  help  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  work;  but,  for  reasons  you  will  appreciate, 
it  has  been  deemed  better  to  resist  these  temptations. 

"  The  support  given  by  individual  firms  throughout  the  country 
is  steadily  increasing,  and  in  a  few  years,  if  the  institution  is  4)rop- 

403 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

erly  encouraged    and   supported,  it    will   become   largely  self-sus- 
taining. 

"  I  come  now  to  the  reason  which  has  made  it  imperatively  neces- 
sary to  apply  to  the  Congress  for  the  amounts  named  in  the  bill 
which  is  in  the  hands  of  your  honorable  committee.  Every  year, 
when  the  board  of  the  Museums  meets  and  brings  together  several 
hundred  of  the  leading  manufacturers  and  commercial  men  of  the 
country,  there  are  also  in  attendance  delegates  from  other  countries. 
Last  June  the  President  of  the  United  States  honored  the  meeting 
with  his  presence.  After  the  meeting  in  Philadelphia,  the  Spanish- 
American  delegates  were  taken  in  special  train  to  a  number  of  the 
principal  cities  of  the  country.  The  results  were  remarkable : 
many  important  commercial  relations  were  established  and  actual 
orders  were  placed  amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars. 

"  These  foreign  delegates  then  urged  that  if  best  results  were  to 
be  obtained  in  the  future  in  these  meetings  it  must  be  by  the  estab- 
lishment at  a  convenient  point  of  a  complete  exposition  of  Ameri- 
can goods  suitable  for  export,  so  that  our  business  men  would  come 
together  and  meet  the  foreign  delegates,  representing  the  great  buyers 
of  other  countries,  with  the  actual  samples  of  American  manufac- 
tured goods  before  them,  with  the  immense  collections  of  the  natu- 
ral products  of  all  countries,  arranged  conveniently,  so  that  close 
study  of  trade  conditions  could  be  made,  which  would  certainly 
result  in  immense  stimulation  of  foreign  commerce.  This  proposi- 
tion is  meeting  with  the  unanimous  support  from  the  business  men 
in  the  country.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  members  of  this  commit- 
tee have  heard  from  their  constituents  on  the  subject.  We  have 
received  very  many  thousands  of  communications  urging  us  to  carry 
out  the  work. 

"  Not  only  have  individual  firms  written,  but  at  least  forty  lead- 
ing commercial  organizations  of  the  country,  representing  more 
than  twenty  States,  have  passed  strong  resolutions,  copies  of  which 
I  hold  in  my  hand,  although  I  will  not  occupy  your  time  by  reading 
them. 

404 


^T.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

"  Now,  it  is  clear  that  such  an  exposition  cannot  be  carried  out 
without  national  recognition  and  support.  Mr.  William  Harper, 
the  chief  of  the  bureau  of  information,  who  is  present  to-day,  has 
just  returned  from  a  visit  to  Africa,  Australia,  and  China,  in  the 
interest  of  this  work.  In  each  of  these  countries  the  deepest 
interest  is  felt,  and  there  have  already  been  appointed  leading  repre- 
sentatives of  their  great  business  communities  to  come  as  delegates 
to  the  exposition  in  1899. 

"  I  have  tried  to  show  you  that  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  have  done  certainly  more  than  their  share  in 
this  great  national  work.  I  have  shown  you  how  earnestly  our 
commercial  organizations  and  individual  firms  are  exerting  them- 
selves. I  have  tried  to  make  it  clear  that  the  work  is  absolutely  a 
national  one  and  divested  of  any  character  of  self-seeking  interest 
or  business  design. 

"  The  question  has  been  raised  as  to  the  precedents  for  such 
appropriations.  It  is  known  to  the  committee  that  appropriations 
have  been  made  in  various  instances  to  expositions  which  were  of  a 
temporary  character,  not  devoted  especially  to  practical  business 
purposes.  In  this  case  the  bill  is  safeguarded  by  the  condition  that 
$50,000  shall  be  expended  to  complete  the  exhibits  of  manufac- 
tured goods  made  abroad  for  sale  in  the  neutral  markets  which  our 
manufacturers  desire  to  enter,  while  every  dollar  of  the  remaining 
^5300,000  must  be  covered  by  an  equal  amount  secured  from  other 
sources,  and  the  appropriation  must  be  expended  simply  and  solely 
in  the  construction  of  permanent  buildings.  For  this  exposition  is 
not  to  be  a  temporary  one.  This  is  the  beginning  of  a  great,  con- 
tinuing, practical  work,  where,  year  after  year,  our  manufacturers 
will  have  the  opportunity  of  seeing  a  complete  exhibit  of  American 
goods  made  for  export,  and  of  meeting  at  this  exposition  the  repre- 
sentative buyers  and  commercial  delegates  of  other  countries,  so  as 
to  enjoy  the  best  possible  opportunities  for  extending  their  foreign 
commercial  relations. 

"  The  intense  personal  interest  I  feel  in  this  work  is  owing  to  its 

405 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

scientific  and  educational  character.  Its  growth  has  been  far  more 
rapid  than  could  have  been  expected.  Nothing  can  explain  it 
except  the  fact  that  its  importance  answers  a  great  and  clearly 
recognized  need  of  our  business  communities.  As  I  have  watched 
its  growth  it  has  been  forced  in  upon  my  mind  from  hundreds  of 
sources  that  our  manufacturers  and  business  men  feel  this  is  a  solu- 
tion of  the  great  difficulties  of  our  commercial  condition  ;  that  it  is 
the  key  which  will  alone  enable  them  to  open  the  avenues  of  trade 
which  will  relieve  the  stringent  conditions  of  overproduction  that 
threatens  us. 

"  The  advantages  of  the  bureau  of  information  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Museums  are  available  without  restriction  to  every  individual 
or  firm  that  pays  the  small  annual  sum  of  ^50. 

*'  It  should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  exposition  is  not  to  be 
made  a  money-making  enterprise.'  In  addition  to  the  amounts  that 
will  be  recei\  ed  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  and,  it  is  hoped,  from  the  national  government,  there 
will  be  large  subscriptions  to  the  stock  of  the  exposition  association. 
Mr.  P.  A.  B.  Widener  is  president  of  the  board  of  directors  of  this 
association,  and  such  men  as  John  H.  Converse,  W.  L.  Elkins, 
Charles  H.  Cramp,  Samuel  Disston,  Justus  C.  Strawbridge,  and 
others  of  equal  prominence  from  Philadelphia  and  other  localities, 
are  members  of  the  board.  We  have  started  the  subscription  to 
the  stock  with  good  liberal  sums,  and  it  is  expressly  stipulated  that 
if  any  surplus  is  left  over  after  the  payment  of  the  amount  sub- 
scribed to  the  stock,  it  shall  be  turned  over  as  a  part  of  the  perma- 
nent fund."  * 


^  In  response  to  questions  from  members  of  the  committee.  Dr. 
Pepper  stated  that  the  exposition  buildings,  with  their  collections, 
were  open  freely  to  all  visitors  from  whatever  sections  of  the  coun- 
try. No  charge  for  admission  was  to  be  made.  The  collections 
were  open  for  inspection  every  day  in  the  year,  except  Sundays  and 
legal  holidays,  from  9  a.m.  until  5  p.m. 

"^  H.  R.  Report,  No.  1154,  April  23,  1898. 

406 


Mr.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

Dr.  Pepper's  appeal  was  supplemented  by  the  declarations 
of  prominent  manufacturers  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
and  by  an  official  statement  of  the  organization  and  practical 
workings  of  the  Museums.  Undoubtedly  the  argument 
which  carried  the  most  weight  was  concerning  the  nature  of 
the  Museum  itself:  that  it  was  a  public  institution,  organized, 
controlled,  and  supported  by  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and 
that  it  was  conducted  entirely  for  the  benefit  of  the  public. 
In  1898  the  city  of  Philadelphia  appropriated  $100,000 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  institution,  and  on  the  21st  of 
December  of  that  year  Congress  appropriated  $^0,000 
for  the  collection  of  foreign  trade  samples.  The  appeal  to 
Congress  met  with  further  success :  it  appropriated  $300,000 
additional,  which  was  expended  principally  in  the  erection 
of  the  Exposition  Building. 

Down  to  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year,  1899-1900,  not  less 
than  $i,45;5',ooo  had  been  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the 
Museum  by  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  national  government.  Of  this  amount  the 
city  had  contributed  more  than  $1,000,000,  in  addition  to  its 
donation  of  fifty-six  acres  of  land  within  the  city  limits  for 
the  permanent  buildings  of  the  Museums. 

From  the  outset  the  plan  of  the  institution  included  the 
organization  of  a  domestic  advisory  board,  whose  members 
were  elected  by  chambers  of  commerce,  boards  of  trade,  and 
other  commercial  bodies  throughout  the  United  States. 
The  first  meeting  of  this  board  was  held  June  3,  1896, 
when  nearly  one  hundred  organizations  were  represented. 
On  this  occasion  Dr.  Pepper,  as  president  of  the  Museum, 
entering  at  length  into  details,  explained  its  scope  and  pur- 
pose as  follows : 

407 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

"  It  is  proper  that,  before  proceeding  to  the  business  of  the  morn- 
ing, a  brief  statement  shall  be  made  of  the  scope  and  intent  of  the 
movement  we  are  initiating. 

"  While  barter  and  trade  are  found  in  primitive  stages  of  human 
development,  commerce  is  a  function  of  highly  organized  society. 
Its  extent  and  character  give  unerring  indications  of  the  power  and 
importance  of  communities.  The  methods  by  which  it  is  conducted 
and  the  influence  by  which  its  permanence  is  ensured,  its  growth 
promoted,  and  its  advantages  diffused,  are  subjects  of  profound 
interest  and  practical  importance. 

"  Naturally,  there  have  been  developed  agencies  of  various  types 
for  the  investigation  and  advancement  of  commercial  interests.  The 
organization  of  the  individual  trades,  the  Trades  League,  the  Board 
of  Trade,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  each  deals  with  a  special 
phase  of  the  subject.  These  concern  themselves  solely  or  chiefly 
with  practical  results,  and  are  unavoidably  influenced  by  the  influ- 
ential interests  of  the  locality  or  the  industry  represented. 

"  It  would  seem  clear,  however,  that  no  method  of  studying  in- 
dustries and  commerce  can  be  scientific  and  complete  which  does 
not  include  the  museum  idea,  as  now  comprehended.  The  Museum 
aims  to  teach  by  object-lesson  the  story  of  the  world,  past  and 
present.  The  Biological  Museum  presents  the  objects  of  human 
and  comparative  anatomy,  arranged  scientifically  and  labelled  so 
fully  as  to  constitute  the  best  text-book  for  the  study  of  those  sub- 
jects. The  Museum  of  Natural  History  does  the  same  in  its  field. 
The  Museum  of  Archaeology  shows  the  progress  of  the  race  from 
the  most  archaic  times,  the  different  types  of  human  beings,  their 
modes  of  living,  their  forms  of  worship,  their  games,  their  weapons, 
their  implements,  the  natural  products  which  they  use  for  subsist- 
ence, in  their  industries,  and  in  their  arts,  the  objects  of  manufac- 
ture or  of  art  which  they  produce,  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
dispose  of  their  dead. 

"  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  great  educational  and  humanizing 
value  of  such  institutions,  or  rather  of  such  an  institution,  for  the 

408 


vEt.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

complete  Museum  comprehends  not  only  the  above  but  many  other 
special  collections,  whether  installed  under  a  single  management  or 
distributed  more  or  less  widely. 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  the  level  reached  in  intelli- 
gence and  organization  by  any  community  may  be  gauged  most 
accurately  by  the  attention  and  support  of  its  museums. 

"  Some  years  ago  we  began  the  serious  task  of  developing  in  this 
community  a  complete  series  of  museums.  The  controlling  pur- 
pose has  been  the  embodiment  in  each  of  the  strict  scientific  and 
educational  method.  This  implies  the  creation  of  a  staff  of  experts 
of  professional  rank,  the  establishment  of  laboratories  for  original 
investigation  upon  objects  forming  the  collection,  the  formation 
of  a  library  of  reference  and  of  a  bureau  of  pubHcation  to  diffuse 
the  results  attained. 

"  The  natural  products  and  manufactured  articles  which  consti- 
tute the  material  of  commerce  came  necessarily  into  such  a  scheme, 
and  the  long-looked-for  opportunity  of  establishing  a  commercial 
museum  upon  a  truly  scientific  basis  presented  itself  when,  at  the 
close  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago,  it  was  possible, 
through  the  enlightened  liberality  of  the  municipal  authorities  of 
Philadelphia,  and  the  invaluable  services  of  Professor  W.  Powell 
Wilson,  to  secure  vast  collections  of  commercial  material.  The 
problem  which  gave  gravest  anxiety  was  to  secure  a  form  of  organi- 
zation which  would  preserve  the  administration  of  the  proposed 
museum  from  the  taint  of  personal  interest,  would  foster  a  true 
scientific  spirit  in  all  its  work,  and  would  secure  a  permanent  finan- 
cial stability. 

"  The  necessary  legislation  was  secured  which  called  into  exist- 
ence a  Board  of  Trustees,  recognized  officially  and  legally  as  a 
department  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  mode  of  whose 
appointment  is  such  as  to  justify  the  hope  that  at  all  times  practical 
educators  and  scientific  museum  experts  will  be  found  associated 
with  the  leading  men  of  affairs. 

"So  conclusively  satisfied  have  the  municipal  authorities  been 

409 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

from  the  outset  as  to  the  disinterestedness  of  all  connected  with 
this  important  movement,  that  already,  under  two  successive  admin- 
istrations, large  appropriations  have  been  made  for  the  maintenance 
and  development  of  the  Museums  ;  and  a  valuable  tract  of  land 
has  been  transferred  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  as  a  site  for  the  per- 
manent fire-proof  buildings,  upon  the  construction  of  which  we 
hope  soon  to  begin. 

"  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  official  and  disinterested  character 
alone  has  justified  recognition  by  the  State  authorities,  whose  active 
co-operation  has  been  constantly  available  and  whose  approval  has 
been  announced,  of  the  policy  that  the  State  should  contribute  her 
share  to  the  development  and  maintenance  of  this  institution. 

"  An  equally  gratifying  result  has  been  the  recognition  of  our 
work  by  the  national  authorities.  No  matter  how  extensive  our 
collections  might  be,  their  value  would  be  sadly  impaired  unless  the 
Museum  should  maintain  a  Bureau  of  Information,  prepared  to 
issue  the  most  full,  recent,  and  accurate  information  upon  each  and 
every  commercial  subject.  The  late  Mr.  Gresham,  when  Secretary 
of  State,  extended  to  us  the  most  encouraging  assurance ;  and  his 
eminent  successor,  the  present  Secretary  of  State,  has  graciously 
placed  the  Museum  administration  in  relation  with  our  consular 
service  in  a  manner  which  seems  sure  to  confer  important  recipro- 
cal advantages. 

"  A  library  containing  files  of  over  five  hundred  trade  journals, 
embracing  nearly  all  of  importance  published,  together  with  full 
sets  of  the  official  publications  of  the  leading  countries  of  the  world 
relating  to  commerce;  special  consular  reports,  prepared  in  response 
to  our  printed  sets  of  questions  forwarded  by  the  Department  of 
State ;  full  reports  from  our  own  agents  sent  to  localities  of  par- 
ticular importance ;  a  force  of  clerks  familiar  with  the  languages 
of  the  leadmg  commercial  countries,  constantly  engaged  in  the 
preparation  of  fresh  and  accurate  bulletins  :  these  constitute  the 
equipment  of  the  Bureau  of  Information. 

"  It  is  our  purpose  to  render  the  circulars  issued  by  this  Bureau 

410 


JEt.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

serviceable  to  every  manufacturer  and  commercial  concern  in  the 
country  which  desires  to  be  qualified  to  share  in  our  growing  export 
trade.  It  is  our  purpose  to  render  equally  serviceable  the  collec- 
tions which  illustrate  these  circulars ;  for  these  collections  will  be 
kept  continually  up  to  date  by  the  co-operation,  of  which  we  have 
already  cordial  assurance,  of  special  commissions  appointed  in  the 
various  countries  with  which  we  aim  to  have  important  commercial 
relations.  Note,  for  instance,  the  object-lesson  here  afforded  by 
the  treatment  of  the  exports  and  imports  of  Venezuela.  We  have 
been  happy  to  serve  the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers  by 
securing  a  concession  for  the  establishment  of  a  bonded  warehouse 
in  Caracas  for  the  display  of  American  manufactures.  In  our 
Museum  here  are  displayed  all  the  natural  products  of  Venezuela, 
scientifically  arranged  and  classified,  and  clearly  labelled  and  de- 
scribed ;  and  in  an  adjoining  series  of  rooms  are  arranged  the  lead- 
ing manufactured  articles  imported  from  Europe  into  Venezuela. 
These  samples  have  been  recently  purchased  by  our  representatives, 
who  went  abroad  for  this  special  purpose. 

"  It  was  only  after  having  demonstrated  the  public  confidence  in 
the  integrity  of  our  purpose  and  in  the  strictly  scientific  method  of 
our  work,  and  after  having  secured  the  above-mentioned  relation 
with  our  consular  service,  and  after  having  formed  collections  which 
may  fairly  be  described  as  unequalled  in  many  lines,  that  we  felt 
prepared  to  take  the  final  step  in  organization,  and  to  propose  the 
formation  of  a  national  advisory  board. 

"  It  is  possible  that  mere  courtesy  and  transient  interest  in  a 
novel  experiment  might  have  won  for  this  proposal  some  favorable 
recognition.  But  it  is  obvious  that  to  have  received  a  prompt  and 
favorable  response  from  every  commercial  organization,  embracing 
many  of  the  most  important  in  the  country,  to  which  invitations 
were  extended,  to  have  learned  that  in  every  instance  the  delegates 
chosen  have  been  of  the  most  distinguished  and  representative  class, 
and  to  now  welcome  here  so  many  of  those  appointed,  implies  a 
belief   that   this    institution   is   prepared  to  render   substantial  and 

411 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

enduring  service  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  entire 
country. 

"  This  service  will  consist,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  opportunity 
afforded  to  the  individual  members  of  your  constituencies  to  secure 
the  advantages  of  the  Bureau  of  Information,  and  to  profit  by  our 
great  collections  from  reports  of  agents  sent  here  to  study  them. 
But,  again,  we  shall  maintain  a  regular  official  relation  with  the 
organizations  from  which  you  come  to  us  as  delegates  by  providing 
a  free  series  of  monthly  reports  upon  trade  conditions.  It  shall  be 
our  aim  to  render  these  more  fresh,  full,  and  accurate  than  could 
otherwise  be  obtained.  We  shall  further  send  not  only  the  annual 
reports  and  the  official  catalogues  to  the  commercial  organizations 
as  a  body,  as  well  as  to  the  delegates  as  individual  members  of  our 
Advisory  Board,  but  also  all  reports  from  our  laboratories,  where 
scientific  investigations  are  to  be  conducted  upon  the  extensive 
series  of  products  gathered  from  all  sources. 

"  But  even  more  than  upon  the  value  of  these  reports  and  con- 
tributions to  the  bodies  which  you  represent  do  we  depend  upon 
the  actual  practical  value  of  the  meetings  of  the  Advisory  Board. 
It  is  our  belief  that  these  meetings  should  be  strictly  business  meet- 
ings, devoted  to  the  presentation  and  discussion  of  commercial 
topics  in  a  serious  and  scientific  spirit.  Products,  facts,  and  pro- 
cesses, not  theories,  or  doctrines,  or  politics,  should  be  the  subject- 
matter  of  our  deliberations. 

*'  At  the  close  of  these  remarks  I  shall  ask  your  permission  to 
appoint  a  Committee  on  By-laws  and  Programme  of  Business  for 
future  meetings,  and  will  request  them  to  report  at  the  opening  of 
the  afternoon  session.  I  shall  then  invite  a  most  full  and  free  dis- 
cussion of  the  organization  and  plans  of  the  Museum,  in  order 
that  valuable  suggestions  may  be  received  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
this  Museum  may  be  enabled  to  best  serve  the  manufacturing  and 
commercial  interests  of  the  entire  country. 

"  The  trustees  and  officers  of  this  Museum  ask  for  your  confi- 
dence in  their  freedom  from  local  or  political  or  doctrinaire  views. 

412 


Alt.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

They  approach  this  great  work  from  a  purely  scientific  and  educa- 
tional stand-point,  believing  that  thus  the  highest  standard  of  activity 
will  be  maintained  and  the  best  results  be  accomplished. 

"  Philadelphia  has  surely  done  nobly,  and  well  deserves  the  large 
measure  of  approval  and  of  substantial  benefit  which  will  accrue 
from  the  development  of  this  national  institution  in  this  locality. 
If  the  happy  balance  now  adjusted  can  be  maintained,  and  the 
material  support  be  provided  by  the  city  and  State  in  whom  the 
property  of  the  institution  will  vest,  and  to  whom  inevitably  will 
accrue  a  rich  return  for  the  liberal  services  made,  while  the  recogni- 
tion and  facilities  extended  by  the  national  government  confer  unique 
privileges,  and  the  Bureau  of  Information  is  rendered  self-supporting 
by  individual  subscriptions,  and  the  official  relations  of  the  Museum 
with  the  commercial  organizations  throughout  the  country  is  assured 
by  our  Advisory  Board,  it  would  seem  not  improbable  that  far- 
reaching  results  may  follow  our  efforts  to  promote  the  commercial 
prosperity  of  our  country."  ' 

Plans  were  now  perfected  for  the  extension  of  the  work 
of  the  Museum  abroad  and  for  the  utilization  of  the  institu- 
tion by  business  houses  in  the  United  States.  It  was  decided 
to  enlarge  the  membership  so  as  to  include  all  countries  in 
North  and  South  America,  and  extensive  preparations  were 
made  for  the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  Board. 

The  reputation  of  the  Museum  was  already  so  great  that 
when  its  director  and  the  chief  of  its  Scientific  Department 
went  to  Mexico,  in  the  spring  of  1 897,  for  the  purpose  of 
awakening  an  interest  in  the  approaching  gathering,  and 
in  the  work  of  the  Museums  generally,  they  found  that  the 
reputation  of  the  Museum  had  preceded  them.     President 


'  Proceedings  of  the  First  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Advisory 
Board  of  the  Philadelphia  Museum,  June  3-4,  1896,  22  pp. 
Philadelphia  Press^  June  3,  1896. 

413 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

Diaz  received  them  most  courteously,  expressed  his  warm 
personal  interest  in  the  object  of  their  mission,  and  sur- 
rounded them  with  opportunities  for  insuring  success.  When 
the  delegates  assembled  at  Philadelphia  in  June,  1897,  it  was 
discovered  that  the  membership  of  the  Advisory  Board  had 
increased  fifty  per  cent,  during  the  year  and  that  sixteen 
countries  were  represented.  The  delegates  from  Mexico 
and  Brazil  were  appointed  by  the  chief  executives  of  these 
countries.  The  gathering  took  on  a  much  broader  charac- 
ter than  the  one  of  the  previous  year,  and  was  known  as  the 
Pan-American  Commercial  Congress.  At  the  second  day's 
session  the  President  of  the  United  States,  William  McKin- 
ley,  made  a  memorable  address  formally  inaugurating  the 
Museum  as  a  public  institution.  His  remarks  met  with 
enthusiastic  approbation,  when  he  said : 

"  The  avowed  aim  of  the  Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum  is 
to  aid  in  the  development  of  commercial  and  industrial  prosperity. 
No  worthier  cause  can  engage  our  energies.  It  is  a  most  praise- 
worthy one, — the  extension  of  trade, — and  is  to  be  followed  by 
wider  markets,  better  fields  of  employment,  and  easier  conditions 
for  the  masses.  Such  an  effort  commands  instant  approval  of  all, 
for  it  is  linked  with  the  prosperity  of  the  humblest  toiler  and  the 
welfare  of  every  home  and  fireside.  Its  generous  support  will 
insure  and  increase  its  usefulness.  A  spirit  of  friendly  and  mutual 
advantageous  interchange  and  co-operation  has  been  exemplified 
which  is  in  itself  inspiring  and  helpful,  not  only  to  trade  and  com- 
merce, but  to  international  comity,  and  good-will  must  always  pre- 
cede good  trade.  The  purchasers  and  consumers  of  all  nations  are 
here  brought  together  in  close  touch  and  taught  to  work  together 
for  the  common  weal.  A  movement  of  this  kind  is  national, — 
aye,  more  than  that,  international  in  its  character ;  and  I  predict 
that  its  success  will  surprise  even  its  most  enthusiastic  friends  and 
founders." 

414 


JEt.  53]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

Only  those  who  have  participated  in  working  out  the 
details  of  such  a  gathering  as  this  to  which  the  President 
of  the  United  States  was  here  speaking  can  appreciate  the 
enormous  labor  involved  in  the  successful  carrying  out  of 
such  an  undertaking.  The  burden  of  the  work  fell  upon 
Dr.  Pepper.  It  was  he  who  wrote  the  draft  of  the  letter  of 
invitation  sent  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  it 
was  he  who  determined  the  form  and  style  of  every  impor- 
tant feature  of  the  meeting.^  He  was  no  longer  Provost  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  but  retirement  from  that 
honorable  office  had  in  no  wise  decreased  his  influence  or 
diminished  his  fame.  He  was  still  the  foremost  citizen  of 
Philadelphia. 

Nothing  delighted  Dr.  Pepper  more  than  to  be  able  to 
participate  in  a  public  movement  of  acknowledged  usefulness. 
He  loved  to  touch  elbows  with  men  of  affairs,  and  he  had 
profound  respect  for  the  captains  of  industry  whose  services  all 
over  our  country  have  contributed  to  make  it  what  it  is.  He 
knew  very  well  that  the  business  men  who  had  assembled 
from  so  many  countries  to  participate  in  this  meeting  of  the 
Advisory  Board  represented  substantial  interests  of  the  world. 
He  felt  that  he  was  directing  his  energies  in  channels  of  even 
greater  utility  than  the  limited  domain  of  academic  effort. 

During  the  session  many  interesting  reports  and  speeches 
were  made.  It  was  decided  unanimously  that  the  privileges 
of  membership  in  the  Board  should  be  extended  to  Australia 
and  to  the  countries  of  Asia  and  Africa.  The  delegates  from 
Mexico  and  Central  South  America  referred  to  the  efforts  of 
James  G.  Blaine  to  bring  the  people  of  North  and  South 


'  MS.  letters,  Dr.  Pepper  to  Dr.  Wilson,  in   the  Archives  of  the 
Philadelphia  Museum. 

415 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

America  into  closer  commercial  relations.  The  word  reci- 
procity was  on  every  lip,  and  commercial  harmony  was  the 
common  thought.  Every  part  of  Latin  America  was  found 
to  be  friendly  to  the  United  States.  Other  nations  and  other 
races  might  be  our  competitors,  and  in  some  instances  our 
bitter  rivals,  but  the  people  to  the  south  of  us  looked  upon 
us  as  friends  and  allies,  and  were  zealous  to  apply  themselves 
to  the  task  of  securing  a  better  understanding  in  matters  of 
trade  and  of  removing  all  disabilities.  The  social  features  of 
the  meeting  were  particularly  enjoyable,  and  successful  efforts 
were  made  to  bring  the  visitors  into  closer  touch  with  the 
manufacturers  and  business  men  of  the  United  States.  This 
was  effected  through  special  excursions  to  various  industrial 
centres,  the  results  of  which  were  gratifying  to  all. 

The  agitation  which  preceded  the  war  with  Spain  greatly 
interfered  with  the  permanent  plans  of  the  Exposition,  and 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  compelled  a  postponement  of  the 
Exposition,  but  not  a  cessation  of  preparation  for  it.  Early 
in  the  year  1897,  the  United  States  Senate,  through  Dr. 
Pepper's  influence,  had  passed  the  Exposition  Bill,  and  in 
December  of  the  following  year  the  bill  passed  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  contribution  of  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, which  was  included  in  the  loan  bill,  was  delayed  by 
a  litigation  over  the  legality  of  that  measure,  and  was  not 
assured  until  February,  1899.  By  March  1  of  that  year, 
however,  all  obstacles  were  removed.  It  was  decided  that 
further  postponement  was  unadvisable,  and  the  work  of 
erecting  the  Exposition  Buildings  was  begun.  Ground  was 
broken  for  the  main  building  during  the  last  week  in  March, 
and,  in  less  than  six  months,  handsome  and  commodious 
structures  were  erected,  three  of  which  were  designed  for  the 
permanent  home  of  the  Museum.     On  September  14,  1899, 

416 


.«T.  54]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

the  Exposition  was  opened  amidst  great  public  enthusiasm, 
and  on  October  12  the  third  annual  meeting  of  the  Advisory 
Board  assembled  in  the  name  of  the  International  Commer- 
cial Congress.  This  gathering  proved  a  remarkable  success. 
Nearly  two  hundred  foreign  delegates,  representing  thirty- 
eight  governments  and  one  hundred  and  twelve  organiza- 
tions, participated  in  the  discussions,  and  there  were  delegates 
from  the  leading  chambers  of  commerce  and  boards  of 
trade  in  the  United  States.  So  great  was  the  interest  which 
had  been  aroused  in  various  parts  of  the  world  that  the 
Board  had  increased  to  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  American 
and  three  hundred  foreign  delegates,  or  four  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  in  all, — an  index  of  the  vast  work  which  the 
Museum  was  doing. 

Its  activity  and  influence  had  now  become  world-wide. 
All  the  principal  foreign  governments  were  directly  interested, 
and  the  government  of  the  United  States  was  interested  to  a 
degree  most  gratifying.  The  Department  of  State  at  Wash- 
ington had  acted  as  the  official  agent  of  the  Museum  and 
had  forwarded  all  the  invitations  for  the  Congress.  Every 
American  consul  had  been  instructed  to  give  his  official  aid 
in  creating  an  interest  in  the  Exposition  and  the  Congress 
and  to  co-operate  with  the  special  commissioners  of  the 
Museum  who  were  gathering  materials  for  the  Exposition  in 
all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  delegates  were  welcomed  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  at  a  special  reception  given  in  their  honor  at 
Washington.  The  deliberations  of  the  Congress,  which 
was  in  session  seventeen  days,  were  presided  over  by  many 
distinguished  men,  including  Honorable  Thomas  B.  Kccd, 
Honorable  Cornelius  B.  Bliss,  and  Honorable  Seth  Low. 
Among  the  speakers  were  Ex-Senator  George  F.  Edmunds, 
27  417 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

President  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  and  others  of  national  reputation, 
among  them  delegates  from  foreign  countries.  More  than  one 
hundred  papers  and  addresses  of  vital  interest  to  the  com- 
merce of  nations  were  presented  for  the  consideration  of  the 
Congress,  and  to  every  speaker  were  accorded  the  widest 
latitude  and  freedom  of  speech.  Resolutions  were  adopted 
upon  nine  of  the  most  important  questions  of  the  day, — such 
as  the  immediate  construction  of  the  Isthmian  Canal,  the 
extension  of  the  parcel-post  system,  and  the  establishment  of 
common  trade-mark  laws.  Arrangements  were  effected  to 
secure  frequent  meetings  between  the  foreign  delegates  and 
visitors  and  the  manufacturers  of  the  United  States,  especially 
those  who  were  exhibitors  at  the  Exposition. 

The  Exposition  itself  was  in  many  ways  remarkable,  being 
entirely  original  in  scope  and  design,  and  the  first  national 
exposition  of  American  manufactures  which  are  especially 
suited  for  export  trade.  Its  design  was  to  bring  together 
in  one  convenient  spot  the  American  manufacturer  and  the 
foreign  buyer.  No  better  place  could  have  been  selected 
for  the  purpose  than  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  the  metropolis 
of  the  principal  manufacturing  State  in  the  Union.  More- 
over, the  Exposition  itself  and  the  Museum,  together  with 
the  many  important  manufacturing  places  located  in  the  city, 
afforded  exceptional  opportunities  for  studying  American 
industries  at  their  best.  Here,  for  example,  were  the  Baldwin 
Locomotive  Works,  with  the  capacity  of  turning  out  three 
locomotives  a  day ;  Cramp's  ship-yard,  the  largest  in 
America ;  and  the  Pencoyd  Iron  Works,  which  built  the 
famous  Atbara  Bridge  in  the  Soudan.  Here,  too,  were  many 
other  noted  establishments  engaged  in  the  manufacturing  of 
nearly  every  kind  of  article  known  to  the  American  export 

trade. 

41B 


JEt.  54]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Exposition  was  held  at  a 
time  when  American  manufacturers  were  busy  fiUing  orders 
consequent  upon  the  revival  of  business,  a  large  number  of 
instructive  exhibits  were  brought  together.  There  was  dis- 
played the  latest  improved  machinery  of  every  type,  imple- 
ments, tools,  and  labor-saving  devices  without  number.  As 
far  as  possible  every  machine  was  displayed  in  operation,  so 
as  to  convey  a  greater  understanding  of  its  uses  and  advan- 
tages. Especially  important  to  the  American  manufacturers 
was  the  department  of  samples  of  goods  made  abroad  and 
sold  in  foreign  markets  or  prepared  in  those  markets  for 
local  consumption.  Congress,  when  it  appropriated  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  these  samples  by  the 
Museum,  provided  that  they  should  be  displayed  at  the  Ex- 
position "  for  the  instruction  and  benefit  of  American  manu- 
facturers and  merchants,  thereby  laying  the  foundation  of  a 
great  system  of  national  education."  The  Exposition,  not- 
withstanding the  obstacles  which  had  to  be  overcome  and 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  pioneer  of  its  kind,  proved  a  finan- 
cial success.  During  the  sixty-nine  days  it  remained  open 
it  was  visited  by  1,357,782  persons.  Its  practical  value  was 
recognized  not  only  by  Congress,  which  appropriated  in  all 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  towards  it,  but  also 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  who  expressed  his 
opinion  of  the  Exposition  in  his  message  to  the  Fifi:y-sixth 
Congress. 

"  The  representative  character  of  the  exhibits  and  the  wide-spread 
interest  manifested  in  the  special  object  of  the  undertaking  afforded 
renewed  encouragement  to  those  who  look  confidently  to  the  steady 
growth  of  our  enlarged  exportation  of  manufactured  goods  which 
has  been  the  most  remarkable  fact  in  the  economic  development  of 
the   United  States  in   recent  years.      A   feature  of  the   Exposition 

419 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

which  is  likely  to  become  of  permanent  and  increasing  utility  to 
our  industries  was  the  collection  of  samples  of  merchandise  pro- 
duced in  foreign  countries  with  special  reference  to  particular 
markets,  thus  proving  practical  object-lessons  to  United  States 
manufacturers  as  to  qualities,  style,  and  prices  of  goods,  such  as 
meet  the  special  demands  of  consumers  and  may  be  exported  with 
advantage. 

*'  In  connection  with  the  Exposition,"  he  continued,  "  an  Inter- 
national Commercial  Congress  was  held,  upon  the  invitation  of  the 
Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum,  transmitted  by  the  Department 
of  State  to  the  various  governments,  for  the  interchange  of  informa- 
tion and  opinion  with  a  view  to  the  formation  of  international  trade. 
This  invitation  met  with  universal  and  cordial  acceptance,  and  the 
Congress  proved  to  be  of  great  practical  importance  from  the  fact 
that  it  developed  a  general  recognition  of  the  interdependence  of 
nations  in  trade,  a  most  gratifying  spirit  of  accommodation  with 
reference  to  the  gradual  removal  of  existing  impediments  in  recip- 
rocal relations  without  injury  to  the  industrial  interests  of  either 
party."  ' 

On  the  occasion  of  the  formal  opening  of  the  Museum 
by  President  McKinley,  Dr.  Pepper  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  institution  not  only  afforded  instruction  to  the 
manufacturer,  to  the  merchant,  and  to  the  general  public,  but 
also  provided  a  splendid  training  school  for  earnest  students 
seeking  to  fit  themselves  for  the  consular  service  or  for  other 
important  positions. 

"  Teachers  and  others  engaged  in  educational  work,"  said  Dr, 
Pepper,  "  frequently   avail  themselves   of   the    advantages   afforded 


^  The  official  proceedings  of  the  International  Commercial  Con- 
gress, folio,  442  pp.,  1899,  were  published  at  the  press  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Commercial  Museum,  and  were  distributed  throughout  the 
world. 

420 


JEt.  54]       THE    PHILADELPHIA    MUSEUMS 

by  the  Museum  to  bring  their  classes  to  study  a  particular  kind  of 
material  or  the  products  of  a  particular  country.  Professor  Wilson 
has  given  regular  courses  of  instruction  on  commercial  geography 
to  the  school-teachers  of  Philadelphia  and  vicinity.  These  lectures 
have  been  illustrated  by  lantern-slides,  and  some  of  them  have  been 
delivered  before  merchants,  scientific  societies,  and  other  organiza- 
tions that  have  assembled  in  the  Museum  lecture-room.  Speci- 
mens of  the  world's  important  products  are  prepared  by  the  Mu- 
seum, and  supplied  by  it  to  schools  and  societies,  and  it  lends 
lantern-slides  and  specimens  on  request. 

"  While  the  first  care  of  the  Museum  is  the  American  manu- 
facturer and  exporter,  it  is  not  unmindful  of  the  interests  of  the 
foreign  producer  whose  goods  this  country  needs.  Those  in 
charge  of  it  believe  that  the  ships  going  from  port  to  port  should 
be  provided,  as  far  as  possible,  with  cargoes  both  ways.  Many 
thousand  business  firms,  with  whom  it  is  in  close  and  constant 
touch,  testify  to  its  efficiency  in  promoting  reciprocal  and  mutual 
beneficial  trade.  It  is  to  its  active,  helpful,  energetic  assistance 
now  exercised  for  several  years,  that  there  may  be  ascribed  much  of 
the  marvellous  increase  in  the  foreign  trade  of  this  country,  which, 
for  the  first  time  in  1896,  surpassed  that  of  Great  Britain,  and 
placed  the  United  States  in  the  first  rank  as  an  exporting  nation. 

"  The  Commercial  Museum  long  ago  ceased  to  be  a  novelty  to 
the  business  men  of  the  world  where  foreign  commerce  has  been 
a  study  for  years,  but  until  the  organization  of  the  Philadelphia 
Museum  its  kind  did  not  exist  anywhere.  It  remained  for  this 
Museum  to  mark  a  new  departure  in  the  history  of  commerce  by 
rendering  not  merely  a  passing  but  active  service  in  extending 
foreign  trade  relations.  From  the  time  of  its  removal  to  Fourth 
Street,  in  1894,  it  became  an  aggressive  potent  factor,  both  in  pro- 
moting the  foreign  trade  of  the  United  States  and  in  benefiting 
international  commerce  in  general.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  the 
International  Commercial  Congress  unanimously  declared  that  the 
Museum  is  an  institution   worthy  of  the  support  of  every  govern- 

421 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

ment,  of  their  chambers  of  commerce,  boards  of  trade,  and  other 
commercial  and  industrial  organizations  in  every  country  in  the 
world. 

"  It  is  estimated  that  the  completion  of  the  seven  buildings,  with 
their  appliances  and  accommodation  for  collections,  will  require  at 
least  the  expenditure  of  two  and  a  quarter  million  dollars  ;  but  this 
is  a  small  sum  compared  with  the  work  which  the  institution  has 
accomplished  and  which  it  will  accomplish  in  the  future.  The 
value  of  its  service  to  manufacturers  and  merchants  of  this  country 
in  the  extension  of  foreign  trade  cannot  be  estimated  in  money." 

On  the  6th  of  June,  1 898,  the  day  before  Dr.  Pepper  left  for 
California  in  the  vain  search  for  health,  he  dictated  a  cheerful 
note  to  Professor  Wilson,  encouraging  him  to  push  forward  the 
work  of  the  Museum  vigorously,  and  assuring  him  that  he 
would  return  in  September  again  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the 
great  enterprise.  We  know  that  he  never  returned,  that 
his  work  was  done,  and  that  there  remained  for  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  Museum  only  to  carry  on  the  great  work  of  the 
institution  which  he  had  been  instrumental  in  founding. 
Had  he  done  no  more  than  to  organize  the  Commercial 
Museum  he  would  justly  have  endeared  his  name  to  pos- 
terity ;  but  we  know  that  this  was  only  part  of  his  life-work ; 
that  while  he  was  furthering  this  special  interest  he  was  also 
laboring  with  equal  zeal  for  the  University,  for  the  Free  Li- 
brary, for  the  Archseological  Museum,  and  for  many  other 
public  movements  in  the  city  of  his  birth. 


422 


^T.  45]     MUSEUM   OF   SCIENCE   AND    ART 


IV 

THE  FREE  MUSEUM  OF  SCIENCE  AND  ART 
1886-1898 

IN  1886-87  ^^^  important  relation  of  archaeological  dis- 
covery to  education  first  made  itself  felt  in  Philadel- 
phia. At  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  a  Depart- 
ment of  Semitics  was  established,  and  Professor  Hermann 
V,  Helprecht  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Assyriology.  This 
was  the  first  official  step  taken  by  the  institution  towards  a 
recognition  of  its  needs  along  this  line  of  research,  and  it 
was  due  to  Dr.  Pepper  that  the  University  was  then  made  to 
take  a  part  in  the  intellectual  movement  in  which  it  was 
soon  to  achieve  distinction. 

Somewhat  later  (1888)  and  through  the  exertions  of  the 
Rev.  John  P.  Peters,  D.D.,  a  number  of  gentlemen,^  in- 
terested in  biblical  studies,  formed  themselves  into  a  com- 
mittee for  the  purpose  of  sending  a  scientific  expedition  to 
the  Lower  Euphrates.  The  plan  was  to  conduct  excavations 
on  the  site  of  ancient  Nippur,  where  extensive  mounds 
had  long  challenged  the  interest  of  scholars  and  seemed  to 
promise  a  rich  harvest.  Dr.  Pepper,  always  on  the  alert  to 
recognize  worthy  public  enterprises,  at  once  perceived  the 
importance  to  the   University  of  this  movement  if  carried 


>  Messrs.   E.  W.  Clark,  C.  H.  Clark,  Henry   C.  Trumbull,  C. 
C.  Harrison,  W.  W.  Frazier,  and  others. 

423 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1889 

on  under  its  auspices.  He  joined  the  committee  under  the 
chairmanship  of  Mr.  E.  W.  Clark,  subscribed  to  its  work, 
and  soon  became  its  leading  spirit.  The  undertaking  thence- 
forth became  known  as  the  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

He  assigned  several  halls  in  the  Library  Building,  then 
about  to  be  erected,  as  exhibition-rooms  for  the  collections 
that  in  time  must  come  to  the  University.^  As  a  beginning 
a  few  miscellaneous  object  squeezes,  casts,  a  number  of 
Palmyrene  sculptures,  and  also  some  Roman  and  Etruscan 
antiquities,  were  placed  in  an  upper  hall  of  the  college,  and 
formed  the  nucleus  of  a  museum.  With  the  immediate 
prospect  of  an  acquisition  of  important  archaeological  ma- 
terial. Dr.  Pepper  also  saw  the  possibility  of  bringing  to- 
gether at  the  University  a  new  group  of  intelligent  men  and 
women  whose  interest,  at  the  time  scattered,  might  become 
united  in  loyal  service  to  the  institution.  He  therefore  felt 
a  deep  concern  in  the  success  of  the  effort.  In  Mr.  Francis 
C.  Macauley  he  at  once  found  a  useful  ally  for  carrying  out 
his  plans.  Mr.  Macauley  had  been  educated  in  Europe. 
An  amateur  collector  of  considerable  experience,  his  intelli- 
gent interest  in  archaeology  and  ethnology,  as  well  as  his 
wide  circle  of  acquaintances  and  his  popularity  in  Philadel- 
phia, especially  fitted  him  to  help  in  such  an  undertaking. 
On  the  occasion  of  a  dinner  given  by  him,  at  Dr.  Pepper's 
suggestion,  at  the  Philadelphia  Club,  in  the  autumn  of  1889, 
a  rough  plan  of  action  was  outlined,  and  it  was  agreed  to 
estabhsh  "  the  Archsological  Association  of  the  University." 


'  See  pp.  270,  271,  also  his  letter  to  the  trustees,  in  which,  as 
an  argument  in  favor  of  a  fire-proof  library  building,  he  refers  to 
his  agreement  with  the  Babylonian  Committee. 

424 


iEr.  46]      MUSEUM   OF   SCIENCE    AND    ART 

It  was  also  decided  ^  to  form  a  section  of  American  Archaeol- 
ogy, of  which  Dr.  Daniel  G.  Brinton  was  appointed  chair- 
man,— his  private  collections  forming  the  nucleus  of  the 
section.^ 

On  the  occasion  of  Miss  Edwards's  visit  to  Philadelphia,  in 
1890,  Dr.  Pepper,  eager  to  avail  himself  of  the  opportunity 
offered  for  the  acquiring  of  collections  from  Egypt,  raised  a 
fund  of  two  thousand  dollars  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
working  relations  with  the  Egypt  exploration  fund.  An 
Egyptian  section  was  created  and  placed  under  the  charge  of 
Mrs.  Cornelius  Stevenson,  who  from  the  first  had  been  in- 
terested in  Dr.  Pepper's  plans.  In  1891  a  section  devoted  to 
Asia  and  general  ethnology  was  added,  with  Mr.  Stewart 
Culin  as  curator,  and  in  1893,  chiefly  through  the  exertions 
of  Mrs.  Charles  Piatt,  a  section  of  casts  was  organized,  of 
which  the  late  Mr.  Arthur  Biddle  was  appointed  chairman. 
The  establishment  of  each  of  these  sections  represented  a 


'  At  a  meeting  held  at  Dr.  Pepper's  office  in  November,  1889, 
Dr.  Joseph  Leidy  was  elected  president  of  the  new  association  ; 
Dr.  Horace  Jayne,  at  the  time  Dean  of  the  University,  secretary, 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Hockley,  treasurer.  Mr.  Stewart  Culin  took  Dr. 
Jayne's  place  in  1890,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mrs.  Cornelius  Ste- 
venson, Sc.D.,  in  1894.  Mrs.  J.  Dundas  Lippincott  succeeded 
Mr.  Hockley  as  treasurer  in  1892.  At  her  death,  1894,  Mr.  C. 
H.  Clark  was  elected,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  John  Sparhawk, 
Jr.,  in  1897. 

^  On  the  recommendation  of  Professor  F.  W.  Putnam,  of  Har- 
vard, Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott,  of  Trenton,  N.  J.,  was  appointed  curator, 
in  which  office  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr,  Henry  C.  Mercer  in  1894. 
Finally,  in  1899,  a  section  of  General  Ethnology  and  American 
Archaeology  was  formed  of  the  two  sections,  and  placed  under  the 
care  of  Mr.  Stewart  Culin  as  curator. 

425 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

vast  amount  of  labor  on  the  part  of  many  people  whose 
activities  received  direction  from  Dr.  Pepper.  In  1893  Mr. 
Maxwell  Sommerville  was  persuaded  by  Provost  Pepper  to 
transfer  his  superb  collection  of  engraved  gems  from  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  New  York,  where  it  was  then 
exhibited,  to  the  Museum  of  the  University.  This  priceless 
collection  was  installed  in  three  halls,  set  apart  for  the  pur- 
pose in  the  Library  Building,  and  was  eventually  erected  into 
a  section  of  Glyptics,  with  Mr.  Sommerville  as  chairman 
and  curator. 

At  this  time  the  conditions  under  which  the  work  had 
been  conducted  had  altered  so  materially  that  its  reorganiza- 
tion had  become  imperative.  The  success  of  the  Archseo- 
logical  Association  was  now  assured,  and  the  Provost  recog- 
nized that  the  time  had  come  to  bind  the  Museum  and  its 
group  of  workers  to  the  University  in  a  more  formal  manner. 
The  result  was  the  creation  of  a  Department  of  Archaeology 
and  Paleontology  in  the  University  (January  2,  1892),  under 
the  direction  and  control  of  a  Board  of  Managers,  consisting 
of  not  less  than  thirty  members,  six  of  whom  were  appointed 
by  the  Trustees  of  the  University  and  twenty-four  by  the 
Archaeological  Association.  Of  this  new  board  Honorable 
Charlemagne  Tower,  Jr.,^  was  elected  president.  In  later 
years  the  membership  was  increased  to  fifty .^ 

It  was  Dr.  Pepper's  constant  policy  to  make  room  around 


'  Afterwards  American  Minister  to  Austria  and  Ambassador  to 
Russia. 

^  After  Dr.  Pepper's  death  the  department  was  reorganized  and 
placed  under  the  charge  of  a  board  of  fifteen  managers,  with  an 
advisory  board. 

426 


i^T.  49]       MUSEUM    OF  SCIENCE    AND    ART 

him  for  as  many  active  and  influential  citizens  as  a  variety 
of  interests  could  attract  to  the  ever-increasing  group  which 
he  sought  to  bind  to  the  University.  In  this  case  he  aimed 
at  forming  a  flexible  organization  in  which  each  committee 
might  freely  carry  out  its  own  plan  as  far  as  was  consistent 
with  loyalty  to  the  Department.  Wealthy  members  might 
provide  funds,  scholars  might  bring  celebrity,  society  leaders 
might  make  the  work  popular  and  through  the  glamor  of 
fashion  promote  the  undertaking.  Men  of  affairs  might 
contribute  practical  suggestions,  and  politicians  real  power. 
No  one  understood  as  well  as  Dr.  Pepper  that  to  create  and 
sustain  a  great  institution  a  large  number  of  people  must  be 
induced  to  take  pride  in  its  success,  and  every  element  in  the 
community  may  become  of  use. 

In  December,  1892,  the  project  of  erecting  a  museum 
building  for  the  suitable  installation  of  these  extensive  col- 
lections was  taken  up  by  Mrs.  Stevenson.  In  consequence 
of  the  broad  policy  carried  out  by  the  Board,  the  work  had 
grown  with  such  unexpected  rapidity  that  in  spite  of  the 
liberal  accommodations  granted  by  the  University  only  a 
small  proportion  of  the  accumulated  material  could  be  ex- 
hibited, and  the  facilities  for  storage  had  %become  wholly 
inadequate.  It  was  obvious  that  if  the  remarkable  activity 
of  the  Department  was  to  continue,  additional  provision 
must  be  made  for  its  growth,  otherwise  progress  must  be 
stopped.  These  facts  were  forcibly  placed  before  Dr. 
Pepper,  who  at  first  demurred  at  the  thought  of  so  large  an 
undertaking.  Several  important  building  schemes  at  the 
University  were  then  claiming  attention.  He  was  planning 
for  the  erection  of  the  William  Pepper  clinical  laboratory ; 
he  was  considering  the  expediency  of  erecting  a  building  for 


427 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

the  Law  School,^  and  also  dormitories  to  meet  the  growing 
need  of  the  rapidly  increasing  number  of  students. 

At  first  he  felt  reluctant  to  enter  on  a  new  building  project 
of  large  proportions.  He  dreaded,  doubtless,  lest  the  effort 
necessary  to  raise  the  money  for  such  an  edifice  might  inter- 
fere with  other  plans  to  which  he  stood  committed.  Or  it 
may  be  that  he  wished  to  test  the  self-reliance  and  ability 
of  those  in  charge  of  the  movement  before  pledging  himself 
to  the  new  venture.  Whatever  his  reasons  for  pausing,  his 
first  attitude  towards  the  project  was  discouraging.  Writing 
on  the  subject  to  Mrs.  Stevenson,  May  6,  1891,  he  said : 

"  The  University  has  done,  I  think,  all  that  could  be  done  in 
supplying  such  splendid  quarters  for  the  Museum,  as  well  as  in 
many  other  ways.  I  had  hoped  for  a  vigorous  putting  forth  of 
activity  in  the  management  of  the  Museum.  What  can  I  possibly 
do  ?     You  may  count  on  me  for  every  effort  in  my  power." 

In  his  Report  as  Provost  for  1892,  however,  he  referred 
to  the  phenomenal  growth  of  the  Archaslogical  Association 
and  to  its  need  of  room,'^  and  he  announced  to  the  Trustees 
that  the  time  had  come  for  the  erection  of  a  building  worthy 
to  enshrine  the  great  collections. 

Some  time  after  this,  it  having  been  represented  to  him 
that,  whilst  archaeology  could  not  at  first  be  expected  to 
appeal  to  the  public  mind,  a  small  group  of  men  might  be- 
come sufficiently  interested  in  it  to  take  up  the  subject  of  the 


*  In  a  letter  (1894)  he  mentions  in  confidence  having  already 
raised  ;^40,ooo  towards  the  $125,000  regarded  by  him  as  the 
minimum  cost. 

*  See  p.  314,  ante. 

428 


Mr.  49]      MUSEUM   OF   SCIENCE    AND    ART 

Museum  building,  he  expressed  himself  as  follows  in  a  letter 
dated  October  11,1 892  : 

"  As  to  the  Museum  building,  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  possible 
to  secure  it  through  a  few  subscribers.  It  will  have  to  be  a  wide- 
spread popular  subscription  if  it  is  to  be  carried  on  at  all.  We 
may,  however,  find  some  one  with  sufficient  enthusiasm  and  cash." 

All  of  which  was  tantamount  to  saying  that  the  scheme  was 
impracticable.  This  was  a  period  of  discouragement.  Mr. 
Macauley  had  gone  abroad  for  permanent  residence,  and 
there  seemed  no  one  willing  or  able  to  take  his  place.  Dr. 
D.  G.  Brinton  was  approached  by  Mrs.  Stevenson,  but  was 
unwilling  to  share  in  the  undertaking,  and  at  first  little 
response  was  met  with  from  other  quarters. 

Meanwhile,  Dr.  Pepper's  attitude  was  deliberate  and  pru- 
dent. He  felt  that  he  could  not  divert  his  own  energies 
from  plans  already  resolved  upon,  and  the  little  group  of 
willing  helpers  seemed  unequal  to  so  formidable  a  task. 
Yet  he  was  in  real  sympathy  with  the  effort. 

"  I  fear  that  it  is  useless  to  have  a  meeting  of  that  committee,"  he 
wrote.  "  Let  us  collect  data,  and  secure  from  the  Trustees  of  the 
University  a  reservation  of  space  for  the  building,  and  get  more 
active  business  men  on  our  board  before  we  start  a  practical  study 
of  the  question." 

It  required,  however,  little  demonstration  to  make  him 
appreciate  the  fact  that  a  museum  which  had  ceased  to  grow 
must  soon  be  a  dead  museum  ;  that  it  is  of  little  educational 
value  unless  it  is  kept  up  to  date ;  and  that  the  work  already 
done  had  in  a  few  short  years  brought  more  international 
recognition  to  the  University  than  that  of  any  other  single 
department.     Accordingly,  when  at  last  courage  and  perse- 

420 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1892 

verance  were  crowned  with  success,  and  a  few  public-spirited 
men  and  women  became  earnestly  interested  in  the  project. 
Dr.  Pepper  entered  warmly  into  the  scheme,  and  with  char- 
acteristic enthusiasm  and  liberality  declared  himself  ready  to 
head  the  list  with  a  large  subscription.  Mr,  Daniel  Baugh 
having  accepted  the  chairmanship  of  the  building  committee 
and  having  announced  his  intention  to  stand  by  it,  the 
undertaking  at  last  took  tangible  shape  at  a  dinner  given  by 
Mrs.  Stevenson,  January  19,  1892.  Dr.  Pepper,  Mr.  Tower» 
and  Mr.  Baugh  each  subscribed  five  thousand  dollars,  and  in 
a  few  days  many  other  names  were  added  to  the  list.^  The 
little  group  was  soon  further  strengthened  by  the  addition 
of  Mr.  W.  L.  Elkins  and  Mr.  P.  A.  B.  Widener,  whom  Dr. 
Pepper  induced  to  join  the  Board. 

Referring  at  this  time  to  Mr.  C.  H.  Cramp's  spontaneous 
offer  to  subscribe  to  the  fund.  Dr.  Pepper  wrote : 

"  Is  there  any  greater  or  more  real  pleasure  than  that  derived 
from  such  an  event  as  this  generous  gift  ?" 

By  this  time  a  building  fund  of  over  fifty  thousand  dollars 
had  been  accrued, — enough  to  begin  preliminary  plans  and  to 
warrant  an  effort  to  secure  land  from  the  city  for  a  building 
site.  The  original  plan  was  a  modest  one.  Dr.  Pepper 
drew  a  rough  sketch  before  the  architects  were  consulted 
upon  the  subject.  "  Here  it  is,"  wrote  he,  "  a  sketch  worthy 
of  Michael  Angelo.  It  shows  the  finished  building  with 
six  side  galleries  of  spacious  size  and  a  splendid  central  hall ; 
and  on  the  other  side  of  the  page  it  shows  how  readily  one 
fine  gallery  might  be  available  standing  back  a  good  distance 


*  Mr.  Charles    H.   Cramp,  Mr.    John    Harrison,  Mr.  Alfred  C. 
Harrison,  Mr.  C.  H.  Colket,  Mrs.  William  Weightman,  etc. 

430 


JEt.  49]     MUSEUM   OF    SCIENCE    AND    ART 

all  around.  Such  a  gallery  might  be  built,  if  not  more  than 
forty  feet  high,  for  about  thirty-five  or  forty  thousand  dollars 
at  the  safest  estimate."  The  total  cost  of  the  structure  then 
projected  was  not  to  exceed  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  but  that  of  the  completed  plan  might  ultimately  reach 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  at  this  time,  if  the 
museum  idea  was  not  a  new  one  to  the  community,  it  was 
by  no  means  a  commonly  accepted  one.  Only  scholars 
fully  understood  the  bearing  of  archeology  upon  the  study 
of  history.  To  the  public  mind  in  Philadelphia  it  was  not 
yet  clear  that  museums  are  as  necessary  to  public  education 
as  are  text-books  and  that  no  great  city  can  well  lay  claim 
to  being  an  intellectual  centre  unless  it  is  well  provided  with 
such  scientific  plants  which  enable  scholars  to  do  original 
work  and  to  join  in  the  mental  progress  of  the  world.  Even 
to-day  the  practical  utility  of  such  an  institution  is  occa- 
sionally questioned.  Yet  on  an  average  between  four  and 
five  thousand  visitors  now  pass  monthly  through  the  galleries 
of  this  one  museum,  and  many  students  and  scholars  avail 
themselves  of  the  scientific  facilities  which  it  offers  for 
original  investigation. 

A  campaign  of  education  was  therefore  necessary  to 
popularize  the  idea,  for  upon  its  popularity  must  depend 
not  only  the  building  fund,  but  the  securing  from  the  city 
the  site  upon  which  to  erect  the  edifice.  The  Philadelphia 
newspapers  did  a  noble  service.  They  were  found  ever 
ready  to  publish  announcements,  and  their  editorial  columns 
were  freely  used  to  advocate  a  liberal  policy  towards  the 
Museum.  Courses  of  lectures  were  delivered,  atternoon  teas 
and  receptions  were  given,  and  every  social  device  was  re- 
sorted to  to  advance  the  project.     If  a  new  collection  was 

431 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

purchased  or  a  new  "  find"  was  received  from  expeditions  in 
the  field,  it  was  made  an  excuse  for  summoning  not  only 
society,  but  the  public  officials  of  the  city  and  of  the  State, 
and  thus  year  by  year  public  interest  was  stimulated  and 
strengthened,  and  the  gatherings  eager  to  inspect  the  collec- 
tions increased  in  number  and  importance.  The  science  of 
archaeology  not  only  became  better  understood,  but  for  a 
time  its  pursuit  became  the  fashion.  Public  entertainments 
in  support  of  the  Museum  were  given  in  the  summer  at  some 
of  the  suburban  hotels,  and  in  the  winter  young  people 
danced  and  acted  in  amateur  theatricals  for  its  benefit. 

Dr.  Pepper's  views  on  popularizing  such  a  project  are  given 
in  a  letter  of  August  25,  1893: 

"  You  are  absolutely  right  as  to  the  immense  value  of  adver- 
tising. The  Romanists  do  it  to  perfection.  They  have  at  least 
one  representative  on  every  important  paper.  That  is  better  than 
a  separate  paper,  for  that  excites  jealousy.  We  must  have  a  friend 
on  each.  We  can  pay  for  them  in  divers  coin.  The  journalist 
clan  is  a  wonderfully  close  and  loyal  one.  The  more  the  Museum 
is  talked  of  by  them,  and  not  merely  in  the  way  of  dry,  pseudo- 
scientific  articles,  but  of  stimulating  social  notices,  the  more  it  will 
be  talked  of  by  the  people,  mayor  and  councilmen  like  the  rest, 
and  the  more  it  will  be  believed  in.  I  am  sure  this  policy  is  good, 
and  I  hope  you  will  have  it  kept  up  steadily,  though  not  too  ob- 
structively, for  we  must  not  let  them  commit  us  to  more  than  we 
can  accomplish.  What  we  must  have,  if  possible,  is  the  ground. 
We  had  better  not  move  until  late  in  September  or  October  ist. 
We  must  warn  our  friends  that  the  matter  is  not  to  be  brought  up 
now.  We  can  readily  show  much  good  to  come  from  this,  so  that 
the  city  is  justified  in  granting  land." 

He  was  able  to  measure  the  change  gradually  wrought 
upon  public   sentiment  when  one  day  an  old  councilman, 

432 


JEt.  50]     MUSEUM    OF   SCIENCE   AND    ART 

who  had  been  antagonistic  to  some  of  the  legislation  which 
he  had  been  urged  to  support,  gave  it  as  one  of  his  personal 
grievances  that  no  invitation  had  been  sent  to  him  for  the 
reception  of  the  Archseological  Department.  Dr.  Pepper  at 
once  requested  that  a  personal  note  be  written  him,  begging 
him  to  come  and  bring  his  family.  The  secretary  of  the 
Board  did  more :  she  called  to  see  him,  and  had  x  pleasant 
talk  with  him  on  Museum  matters.  He  eventually  became 
friendly  ;  at  any  rate,  he  voted  for  the  next  Museum  measure 
brought  before  Councils. 

No  one  understood  better  than  Dr.  Pepper  the  value  of 
making  a  duty  pleasant  and  kindling  a  glow  of  personal 
pride  and  satisfaction  in  his  co-workers.  No  effort  on  his 
part  seemed  too  great  to  show  his  appreciation  of  their  co- 
operation, and  his  refined  nature,  combined  with  his  rare 
gifts  of  perception,  enabled  him  to  deal  with  each  man  ac- 
cording to  his  special  needs,  without  the  slightest  suggestion 
of  a  vulgar  return  for  services  rendered. 

It  was  here  that  his  medical  skill  and  marvellous  power  of 
diagnosis  came  into  full  play.  He  understood  human  na- 
ture. To  his  delicate  touch  in  handling  men  was  due  much 
of  the  success  of  the  multitudinous  and  difficult  under- 
takings which  he  carried  through.  He  knew  that  in  dealing 
with  a  public  man,  when  endeavoring  to  claim  his  personal 
interest,  he  had  to  deal  with  his  immediate  environment ; 
that,  however  cool-headed  a  business  man  might  be  in  his 
office,  once  he  left  it  he  was  subject  to  an  entirely  different 
set  of  influences  which  must  be  counted  with.  He  went  to 
see  a  man  at  his  office,  but  he  also  dealt  with  him  as  a  human 
being,  as  a  father,  as  a  husband,  as  a  friend,  and  tried  to  create 
about  him  an  atmosphere  friendly  to  his  own  undertakings. 

This  was  made  easy  by  the  inexhaustible  kindUness  and 
28  433 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893! 

sympathy  of  his  nature.  He  seldom  indulged  in  banal 
civilities  which  form  the  small  coin  of  society.  He  rarely 
sent  presents  at  stated  times,  unless  to  such  people  as  would 
be  likely  to  lay  serious  stress  upon  such  omissions ;  but 
should  a  man  who  had  helped  him  be  ill,  in  trouble  or  dis- 
grace, whether  a  magnate,  a  politician,  or  a  common  em- 
ployee, he  was  sure  to  get  a  kind  word,  or,  it  may  be, 
practical  help  from  Dr.  Pepper.  Here  again  his  medical 
training  influenced  his  philosophy,  and  caused  him  to  look 
upon  human  shortcomings  as  upon  natural  phenomena. 
"  Yes,  life  is  the  same  everywhere,"  he  wrote,  in  1 898,^  in 
answer  to  a  description  of  human  weakness  as  seen  in  a 
foreign  city.  "  We  give  ugly  names  to  what  men  and 
women  do,  but  they  are  the  uniform  expressions  of  life  varied 
under  different  circumstances  and  combinations." 

He  had  enemies,  as  every  successful  public  man  who  is 
true  to  a  cause  must  have,  but  the  great  public  knew  andj 
trusted  him.     They  trusted  his  skill  as  a  physician,  his  judg- 
ment and  honor  as  a  leader,  and  his  sympathy  and  justice 
as  a  man.     No  one  of  his  rank  of  life  was  better  known 
by  the  people ;  no  one  had  more  friends  in  every  class  of 
society.      From  the  railroad  president  to  the  merest  gate- 
keeper, all  stood  ready  to  do  him  a  service.     And  thus  it  was 
that  in  his  latter  years,  whenever  he  advocated  a  measure  be-  | 
fore  Councils,  the  Legislature,  or  Congress,  the  only  serious 
obstacles  with  which  he  met  were  based  upon  political  or|l 
factional  expediency.     If  this  was  out  of  the  way  he  had  the  " 
good-will  of  every  party. 

In  1893,  in  the  name  of  the  Trustees,  Provost  Pepper  ap- 
plied to  the  city  for  the  grant  of  eight  acres  of  land  adjoin- 

*  February  15. 

434 


^T.  50]     MUSEUM  OF   SCIENCE   AND   ART 


ing  the  University  grounds  and  already  reserved  for  a  park 
by  a  city  ordinance  of  1883/  to  establish  thereon  a  Free 
Museum  of  Science  and  Art  and  a  Botanic  Garden.     In 
1893,  however,  the  average  Philadelphia  councilman  found 
difficulty  to  understand  why  city  ground,  worth  $30,000  an 
acre,  and  a  part  of  which   at  the  time  was  used  to  supply 
'  cabbages  to  the  Almshouse,  should  be  diverted  in  favor  of 
so  unproductive  an    enterprise  as   a    Museum    of    Archae- 
ology ;  nor  were  the  city  fathers  alone  in  this  view.     The 
whole   of  the  year   1893  was,  therefore,  spent  by  those  in 
charge  of  the  movement  in  a  fruitless  effort  to  demonstrate 
to  the  public  that  the  Board  of  Public  Charities  was  paying 
;  an  extravagant  price  for  its  vegetables.     A  powerful  oppo- 
'  sition  had  been  created  by  this  Board.     Some  of  its  mem- 
bers saw    in  the  proposed  encroachment  a  renewel  of  the 
'  attempt,  periodically  made  by  Dr.  Pepper,  to  obtain  the  re- 
'  moval  of  the  paupers  and  insane  from   their  overcrowded 
and  unhygienic  quarters,   and    their  transfer  to  some    sub- 
urban district  where  they  could  be  given  proper  care  and 
wholesome  employment.     Nor  was  this  apprehension  a  mis- 
taken one,  and  it  must  be  said  that  the  hope  of  accomplish- 
ing this  long-desired  object  added  a  powerful  incentive  to 
the  great  physician's  efforts  to  obtain  the  coveted  land. 

Strenuous  efforts  were  put  forth  throughout  the  year,  but 
in  the  autumn  success  seemed  more  doubtful. 

"  We  must  have  the  dormitories,"  wrote  Dr.  Pepper,^  "  we  must 
have  the  Museum  ;  with  them  we  are  complete.  I  feel  more  and 
more  clear  that  after  securing  the  ground,  or  still  more  if  we  arc 
defeated  there,  we  should  apply  for  ^25,000  for  an  extension  to  the 
Library  and  have  our  Museum  in  shape  at  once.     Then  it  would 


^  See  p.  181,  ante.  ^  October  18-23,  1893. 

435 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

quickly  be  seen  how  fine  it  is  ;  how  inadequate  the  accommodations 
and  how  necessary  the  new  building.  The  University  would  refund 
what  we  have  spent  on  the  addition  to  the  Library.  We  ought  to 
have  a  building  by  next  October  and  have  our  exhibits  in  place  for 
that  year's  campaign." 


If  the  effort  to  secure  the  Blockley  land  failed,  he  sug- 
gested, as  an  alternate  plan,  to  locate  the  Museum  on  the  old 
athletic  field,  south  of  the  Wistar  Institute,  where  the  dormi- 
tories now  stand.  None  of  these  makeshifts,  however,  were 
satisfactory  to  the  building  committee,  and  every  available 
influence  was  concentrated  upon  the  one  end.  Prominent 
citizens,  political  leaders,  ward  politicians  good  naturedly 
went  to  work.  At  last  success  was  achieved  by  a  most 
active  and  earnest  campaign  led  by  Dr.  Pepper.  The  mayor 
of  the  city,  on  March  30,  1894,  approved  the  ordinance  of 
Councils  granting  the  tract  of  eight  acres  applied  for  by  the 
committee,  and  made  it  over  to  the  University  to  be  used 
as  a  site  for  a  Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  and  for  a 
Botanical  Garden.  This  trust  was  formally  accepted  by  the 
Board  of  Managers  of  the  Museum,  who,  feeling  that  their 
responsibility  now  involved  a  closer  relation  to  the  munici- 
pality, by  unanimous  vote  added  as  ex-officio  members  to  their 
Board  the  mayor,  the  president  of  both  branches  of  Councils, 
and  the  president  of  the  Park  Commission.  At  the  same 
time  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  was  requested 
by  the  Department  to  authorize  an  application  to  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  for  an  appropriation  to  be  expended  in 
the  erection  of  the  great  Museum  building.  These  actions; 
were  duly  ratified  by  a  resolution  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  in 
accordance  with  which  preliminary  steps  were  at  once  taken 
by  the  Department  of  Archaeology  to  apply  to  the  Legislature 

436  ' 


^T.  51]     MUSEUM   OF   SCIENCE   AND    ART 

at  its  next  session  for  an  appropriation  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  to  be  applied  to  the  construction  of  a  Museum 
building. 

Before  resigning  the  Provostship,  Dr.  Pepper  had  endea- 
vored, as  far  as  possible,  to  anticipate  the  possibility  of  any 
difficulty  which  the  change  of  administration  might  place  in 
the  way  of  the  Museum.  His  efforts  in  this  direction  were 
not  wholly  successful. 

In  1895  the  University  authorities  for  the  first  time  re- 
solved to  apply  to  the  State  Legislature  for  an  appropriation 
towards  the  general  provisions  of  the  institution.  By  this 
action  the  Department  of  Archaeology,  which,  acting  under 
the  above-mentioned  authority  from  the  Trustees,  had  vigor- 
ously pressed  its  claim  at  Harrisburg,  was  for  a  brief  period 
unexpectedly  placed  in  an  awkward  attitude  of  apparent  op- 
position to  the  University.  After  considerable  discussion, 
however,  an  adjustment  was  arrived  at  between  the  Trustees 
of  the  University  and  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Archaeology,  by  which  a  united  effort  was  made, 
under  private  agreement,  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  of  the  appropriation  to  be  secured  by  the  University 
— whatever  its  amount — should  be  assigned  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Museum  building. 

The  act  of  Assembly  of  July  5,  1895,  granted  two  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  to  the  University,  on  condition  that  an 
equal  amount  should  be  raised  by  private  subscription. 
These  terms  having  been  more  than  complied  with,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  the  amount  was  paid 
over  to  the  Museum  as  agreed,  and  the  work  of  construction 
was  begun  in  earnest. 

The  progress  of  the  work,  however,  soon  received  another 
serious  check.     The   entire   lot  of  ground  between  Spruce 

437 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

Street,  Blockley  Lane,  Thirty-fourth  Street,  and  the  railroad  I 
tracks  covered  about  twelve  acres,  of  which  the  eight  acres  ! 
meted  out  to  the  Museum  were  included  within  an  awk- 
wardly uneven  outline,  drawn  in  order  to  preserve  to  the 
Almshouse  the  control  of  an  eminence  or  mound  on  which 
stood  a  picturesque  stone  barn,  then  used  as  a  stable.  When 
the  architects  ^  began  a  practical  study  of  their  subject,  it  was 
found  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  erect  the  section  of  the 
projected  Museum  on  the  northwest  corner  of  the  lot  unless 
the  building  was  placed  on  a  line  with  the  street.  Under 
such  conditions  nothing  impressive  could  be  accomplished. 

The  matter  was  a  serious  one,  for  it  involved  the  entire 
architectural  effect  of  the  structure.  After  prolonged  con- 
sideration of  the  subject,  it  was  resolved  to  make  another 
effort  to  obtain  from  Councils  one  more  acre  of  land,  which 
would  give  the  width  needed  for  the  erection  of  the  western 
wing  of  the  Museum  at  a  suitable  distance  from  the  street. 
Mayor  Stuart  had  been  succeeded  by  Mayor  Warwick,  a 
man  of  scholarly  tastes,  whose  sympathies  were  easily  aroused 
when  educational  interests  were  involved.  When  the  matter 
was  laid  before  him,  he  quickly  perceived  the  absurdity  of 
permitting  a  barn  to  impede  the  progress  of  an  undertaking 
of  such  importance  to  the  city,  and  he  undertook  to  adjust 
the  matter  with  the  Board  of  Charities  and  Correction.  Ac- 
cordingly, with  comparatively  little  trouble  an  ordinance  of 
Councils  was  passed  in  October,  1895,  by  which  the  barn 
and  the  land  on  which  it  stood  were  made  over  to  the  Uni- 
versity on  the  same  terms  as  the  former  grant.  "  I  was  in 
West  Philadelphia  to-day,"  wrote  Dr.  Pepper  to  Mrs.  Stevcn- 


^  Messrs.  Wilson  Eyre,  Cope  &  Stevenson,  Frank  Miles    Day 
&  Bro. 

438 


iET.  51]     MUSEUM   OF   SCIENCE   AND    ART 

son,  October  8,  a  few  days  after  the  ordinance  was  passed. 
**  The  old  barn,  our  barn,  now  looks  beautiful  in  my  eyes. 
Let  us  guard  it  and  fit  it  up  as  a  museum  and  use  our  money 
to  maintain  it  and  conduct  our  great  explorations.     I  love  it 

as  fondly  as  L did  last  Thursday ;  now  he  hates  it  and 

you  and  me  ;  but  we  will  get  the  rest  of  the  land  all  the  same." 
Curiously  enough,  a  few  days  after  this  letter  was  written  the 
bam  was  accidentally  burned  down,  thus  settling  the  question 
of  its  future  uses  in  a  manner  satisfactory,  if  not  to  Dr. 
Pepper,  at  least  to  those  in  charge  of  the  projected  building. 

The  campaign  which  culminated  in  the  acquisition  of  the 
barn  site  represented  nearly  two  years  of  tiresome  labor. 
But  whatever  the  difficulties  overcome,  a  radical  change  had 
taken  place  in  the  attitude  of  the  public  towards  the  Uni- 
versity since  1869,  when  Common  Councils  after  a  prolonged 
fight  grudgingly  sold  to  the  University  eight  acres  of  land  at 
fifteen  thousand  dollars  an  acre.^  And  this  change  in  public 
sentiment  was  entirely  due  to  Dr.  Pepper's  wise  policy,  pa- 
tience, and  singleness  of  purpose.  A  it^  malcontents '  were 
still  found  who  stigmatized  the  result  as  another  University 
"land  grab,"  but  there  was  rejoicing  in  many  quarters  over 
the  successful  ending  of  the  prolonged  struggle.  And  yet 
no  site  could  appear  more  unpromising  than  the  piece  of 
land  now  turned  over  to  the  University.  Most  of  it  had 
been  a  dumping-ground  for  years,  and  the  refuse  formed  a 
steep,  rugged  slope  to  the  railroad  track.  Goats  roamed 
over  it,  feeding  here  and  there  on  the  scanty  green  patches 
among  the  ash-heaps,  and  broken  bricks  and  old  shoes  were 
strewn  over  the  uneven  surface. 

One   gray   March   day,   in    1894,  Dr.   Pepper  and  Mrs. 

^  Sec  p.  166.  '  TaggarCi  Times. 

439 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

Stevenson,  with  Mr.  Justus  C.  Strawbridgc,  whom  they  were 
anxious  to  interest  in  the  project,  and  to  whom  they  wished 
to  show  the  new  land,  met  by  appointment  at  the  end  of 
South  Street  bridge.  A  strong  east  wind  blew  from  the 
river,  and  the  whole  outlook  was  hopelessly  dismal.  Mr. 
Strawbridge  stood  looking  over  the  dreary  waste,  whilst  Dr. 
Pepper  enthusiastically  explained  the  glorious  possibilities 
offered  to  his  view  by  the  wretched  stretch  of  land  before 
them.  With  each  passing  train  a  dense  black  smoke  rolled 
up  in  sooty  masses,  enveloping  railroad  tracks,  goats,  and 
refuse  in  a  black  mist,  whilst  blasts  of  coal  gas  smothered 
the  lungs  of  the  visitors.  Mr.  Strawbridge  gravely  listened 
to  Dr.  Pepper's  vivid  description.  He  even  nodded  in  cour- 
teous approval  as  the  complete  plan,  at  an  estimated  cost  of 
over  two  millions  of  dollars,  was  explained  to  him  ;  but  his 
face  wore  a  perplexed  expression.  As  Dr.  Pepper  turned 
away  for  a  moment  to  call  the  attention  of  a  passing  police- 
man to  trespassers,  Mr.  Strawbridge  whispered  to  his  com- 
panion :  "  I  cannot  bear  to  throw  cold  water  on  Dr.  Pep- 
per's enthusiasm ;  but  what  an  extraordinary  site  for  a  great 
museum  I  Of  course,  I  would  like  to  help  him ;  but  what 
a  site ! " 

Wholly  unaware  of  the  criticism  which  had  been  passed 
upon  his  valued  possession,  Dr.  Pepper  resumed  the  thread 
of  his  thoughts.  With  the  sublime  faith  that  carried  him 
through  his  most  difficult  ventures,  he  pointed  out  the  line 
where  high  retaining-walls  would  guard  the  property  from 
the  railroad  bed  and  the  point  where  graded  terraces  would 
lead  the  way  to  the  level  ground.  He  eloquently  described 
the  imposing  buildings  of  the  Philadelphia  Commercial 
Museums,  which  were  to  extend  beyond,  and  drew  atten- 
tion to  the  great  quay  along  the  Schuylkill  River,  which  some 

440 


i^T.  51]      MUSEUM   OF   SCIENCE   AND    ART 

day  must  convert  the  low,  swampy  ground  into  a  part  of  the 
vast  improved  site,  with  which  connection  would  be  main- 
tained by  a  series  of  bridges  over  the  railroad  tracks.  It 
was  all  clear  enough  to  him,  and  little  by  little,  as  he  spoke, 
his  faith  took  on  the  ring  of  prophecy,  and  Mr.  Strawbridge 
began  to  yield.  *'  I  will  send  for  Olmstead,"  he  said,  as  Dr. 
Pepper  paused.  "  I  will  have  him  examine  this  ground,  see 
how  best  it  can  be  turned  to  account,  and  I  will  bear  the 
expense."  And  he  did.  Some  weeks  later  all  three  met  again, 
with  Mr.  Olmstead,  at  the  same  place,  and  a  preliminary 
plan  was  drawn,  which  no  doubt  will  be  carried  out  in  time. 
Dr.  Pepper's  earnestness  had  won  even  so  practical  and  saga- 
cious a  business  man  as  Mr.  Strawbridge.  As  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Grounds,  with  Mr.  Samuel  F.  Houston 
as  his  associate,  he  at  once  took  hold  of  the  project,  and  four 
years  had  hardly  gone  by  before  the  skill  of  the  architects 
had  transformed  a  part  of  the  once  unsightly  waste  land  into 
beautiful  approaches  to  the  new  edifice. 

In  1 894  Dr.  Pepper  resigned  the  Provostship.  Under  his 
masterly  management  the  institution  had  developed  to  a 
point  where  it  must  claim  his  entire  time  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  interests.  He  might  have  struggled  on  a  few  years 
longer,  but  he  felt  that  the  creative  period  of  the  University 
as  planned  by  himself  was  over.  The  time  had  come  when 
he  could  lay  down  the  burden  with  honor  and  leave  to  a 
new  leader  the  task  of  opening  the  coming  era  of  develop- 
ment. His  resolve  was  wise,  yet  it  was  not  without  a  severe 
inward  struggle  that  he  brought  himself  to  act  upon  it.  The 
winter  of  1893-94  was  spent  in  setting  all  his  affairs  in  order, 
preparatory  to  retiring  from  the  Provostship.  Only  those 
closest  to  him  knew  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  before  the 

announcement  was  made  public,  and  very  few  among  these 

441 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1894 

were  allowed  to  read  his  innermost  thoughts  on  that  com- 
mencement day  when  he  retired  from  his  academic  trust. 

The  proud  record  of  his  administration,  as  told  by  Dr. 
Furness,  has  already  been  narrated.^  That  administration 
was  now  a  thing  of  the  past ;  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
eloquent  story  Dr.  Pepper  walked  out  of  the  Academy  of 
Music  a  simple  professional  man  in  private  life,  divested  of 
the  glamour  of  office  and  of  the  power  which  direction  and 
patronage  give.  He  went  through  the  ordeal  with  simple 
dignity ;  his  face  was  never  more  imperturbable.  He  knew 
that  he  was  doing  the  right  and  wise  thing,  and  he  was 
content.  But  when  it  was  over,  he  went  to  the  house  of  a 
friend,  and,  exhausted  by  the  prolonged  strain,  threw  himself 
on  a  lounge,  and  exclaimed,  "  I  felt  on  that  stage  as  though 
I  was  assisting  at  my  own  funeral  and  Furness  was  deliver- 
ing my  funeral  oration." 

When,  early  in  the  year  1894,  he  formally  announced  his 
intention  of  resigning,'  his  relations  with  many  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  governing  the  Department  of  Archaeology 
had  assumed  a  character  of  personal  friendship.  To  them 
the  thought  of  losing  him  as  a  leader  seemed  a  calamity,  and 
a  strong  effort  was  made  to  retain  his  interest.  At  a  meeting 
of  the  University  Archaeological  Association,  called  on  April 
4,  1894,  the  chairman  of  the  Museum  Committee  arose  and 
made  the  following  statement : 

"  I  wish  to  draw  the  attention  of  those  present  to  the  fact  that, 
although  Dr.  Pepper  created  this  Association  and  the  Department 
of  Archaeology  of  the  University,  and  although  he  has  constantly 
been  the  most  active  member  of  our  Board,  giving  us  the  fullest 
benefit  of  his  experience,  influence,  and  financial  support,  he  has 

'  See  p.  333,  ante.  »  April  23. 

44a 


jet.  si]    museum  of  science  and  art 

done  this  only  in  his  ex-oijicio  capacity  as  Provost  of  the  University. 
In  the  face  of  his  much-to-be-regrctted  resignation,  his  connection 
with  us  virtually  ceases,  and  I  move  that  the  University  Archaeo- 
logical Association  expresses  its  thanks  to  him  for  the  many  ser- 
vices which  he  has  rendered  to  the  cause  of  archaeology  in  this  city, 
and  its  hope  that  he  will  continue  his  interest  in  the  future  progress 
of  our  work.  I  also  move  that  Dr.  Pepper  be  elected  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Department." 

Shortly  after  this  the  Honorable  Charlemagne  Tower,  Jr., 
announced  his  earnest  desire  to  resign  the  office  of  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Managers  if  Dr.  Pepper  would  accept 
it,  at  the  same  time  expressing  his  willingness  to  serve  under 
him  as  vice-president,  or  in  any  other  capacity,  and  prom- 
ising his  continued  support. 

Strong  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  Dr.  Pepper  to 
induce  him  to  accede  to  this.  There  were  powerful  reasons 
for  his  doing  so.  At  this  time  the  Philadelphia  Museums, 
of  which  he  was  the  founder,  were  in  a  formative  stage.  By 
an  ordinance  of  Councils,  signed  by  the  Mayor  on  June  1 5, 
1894,  a  Board  of  Trustees  had  been  formed,  of  which  Dr. 
Pepper  had  been  elected  president,  and  to  which  several  of 
the  more  active  members  of  the  Department  of  Archeology 
had  been  appointed.  The  importance  of  maintaining  close 
and  friendly  relations  between  the  two  institutions  about  to 
be  established  on  adjoining  sites  of  city  ground  was  repre- 
sented to  him.  These  had  originally  been  planned  by  him 
to  form  a  great  museum  system,  connected  on  the  one  hand 
with  the  city  and  on  the  other  with  the  University,^  and 


^  In  Dr.  Pepper's  mind,  at  the  time  of  their  foundation,  the  Phil- 
adelphia Museums  were  to  stand  to  the  future  Schools  of  Commerce 
and  of  Pedagogy  of  the  University  in  a  relation  similar  to,  though 

443 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

together  to  form  a  strong  allied  group  of  scientific  plants  of 
a  scope  unsurpassed  in  any  American  community.  By  his 
remaining  at  the  head  of  both  institutions  much  of  the 
original  plan  might  still  be  carried  out. 

The  opportunity  for  entering  a  broader  sphere  of  civic 
usefulness  seems  to  have  appealed  to  his  imagination,  or 
perhaps,  after  the  heavy  burden  of  responsibility  had  been 
lifted  from  his  shoulders,  the  crushing  weight  of  which  he 
had  sought  to  throw  off  by  resigning  the  Provostship  of 
the  University,  he,  like  many  public  men  before  him,  had 
felt  lost,  and  missed  the  outlet  for  his  over-trained  energies. 
Rest  had  long  since  grown  irksome  to  him,  and  an  activity 
bordering  upon  restlessness  had  become  his  second  nature. 
However  this  may  be,  he  returned  to  active  life  and  threw 
himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  new  work.  He  at  once 
enlarged  the  original  plan  of  the  Free  Museum  of  Science 
and  Art  and  provided  for  a  more  imposing  structure.  He 
raised  his  own  subscription  to  ^50,000.  His  liberality  was 
soon  emulated  by  others,  and  the  section  of  the  edifice  in 
process  of  erection  at  his  death,  and  which  was  thrown 
open  to  the  public  on  December  20,  1900,  represented  an 
outlay,   including  the  furniture,  of  $385,331.     This  does 


closer  than,  that  which  the  Municipal  Hospital  bore  to  its  Medical 
Department.  They  were  to  be  city  institutions,  maintained  by 
the  municipality,  but  used  for  educational  purposes  by  the  Univer- 
sity, whose  scientific  staff  might  be  drawn  upon  when  necessary. 
In  furtherance  of  this  plan  the  Professor  of  Botany  of  the  Univer- 
sity had  been  appointed  Director  of  the  Philadelphia  Museums. 
The  then  projected  Museum  of  Pedagogy  remained  undeveloped, 
the  Commercial  Museum  eventually  having  absorbed  the  entire 
interest  of  the  community. 

444 


JEr.  51]      MUSEUM    OF   SCIENCE   AND    ART 

not  include  the  value  of  the  land,  which  is  reckoned  at 
^^250,000. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  completed  plan,  when  carried  out, 
will  represent  an  expenditure  of  $2,500,000.  Meantime  the 
scientific  material  of  the  Museum  as  well  as  its  responsi- 
bihties  had  increased  beyond  all  expectation.  In  1893  Dr. 
Pepper  had  deemed  it  wise  for  the  University  to  be  worthily 
represented  among  the  educational  exhibits  made  at  the 
Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago,  and  with  a  view  to  making 
the  display  distinctive,  it  was  decided  that  the  Department  of 
Archaeology  should  contribute  the  greater  part  of  the  exhibit. 
An  appeal  for  funds  was  made,  but  the  financial  responsibility 
was  eventually  assumed  by  Dr.  Pepper  and  Mr.  Tower. 
The  unique  character  of  the  display  attracted  wide-spread 
attention. 

Among  many  valuable  gifts  received  at  this  time,  a  most 
important  accession  was  the  collection  from  the  cliff-dwellers 
of  Colorado,  exhibited  at  Chicago,  which,  at  Dr.  Pepper's 
suggestion,  was  purchased  by  Mrs.  Phebe  A.  Hearst,  of  Cali- 
fornia, who  generously  presented  it  to  the  Museum. 

Although  difference  of  opinion  among  members  ot  the 
Babylonian  expedition  to  Nippur  led  to  the  return,  after 
the  first  season,  of  all  save  Dr.  Peters,  Mr.  Haynes,  and  Mr. 
Noarian,  results  had  been  obtained  during  the  second  year 
that  warranted  the  continuance  of  the  work.  Mr.  Haynes 
was  therefore  left  in  charge,  and  a  new  fund  was  raised  to 
carry  on  the  excavation  for  another  term  of  three  years 
(1893-96).  This  brought  the  fund  subscribed  up  to  that 
date  to  $70,000.^  In  prosecuting  this  work.  Dr.  Pepper 
and  Messrs.  E.  W.  Clark  and  C.  H.  Clark  assumed  the 


'  It  has  since  reached  about  1^125,000. 
445 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1895 

financial  responsibility  of  the  undertaking,^  whilst  Dr.  H.  V. 
Hilprecht  became  its  Director. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  go  into  details  as  to  the  rich  scien- 
tific results  of  the  expedition.  These  are  attested  by  the  fine 
volumes  of  Babylonian  and  other  texts  now  in  course  of 
publication  by  Dr.  H.  V.  Hilprecht.  A  brief  indication  of 
their  value  may  be  found  in  Dr.  John  P.  Peters's  narrative.* 
It  is  sufficient  here  to  say  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  work 
has  done  credit  to  those  who  organized  and  maintained  it, 
and  that  Dr.  Pepper's  foresight  in  securing  the  rich  prize  for 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  has  been  fully  demonstrated. 

The  work  of  the  American  section  was  also  widely  ex- 
tended. In  1893,  Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott  having  resigned,  Mr. 
H.  C.  Mercer  was  in  his  place  appointed  Curator  of  the 
Section  of  American  and  Prehistoric  Archaeology.  His 
work  among  the  caves  of  America,  which  was  pursued  as  far 
as  Yucatan, — although  principally  productive  of  negative  evi- 
dence as  to  the  association  of  man's  remains  with  those 
extinct  fauna  in  the  caves  of  this  continent, — was  of  serious 
importance. 

In  1895-96,  Colonel  Durnford  having  reported  the  exist- 
ence of  interesting  remains  on  the  coast  of  Florida,  near 
Tarpon  Springs,  Dr.  Pepper  at  once  took  steps  to  investigate 
them.     An  expedition  was  organized,  the  expense  of  which 


^  The  first  Babylonian  Expedition,  February  6  to  April  15,  1889  ; 
second,  January  14,  1890,  to  May  3,  1890  ;  third,  April  11,  1893, 
to  P'ebruary  15,  1896;  fourth,  February  6, 1899,  and  the  work  still 
going  on. 

*  "  Nippur,  or  Exploration  and  Adventures  on  the  Euphrates : 
the  Narrative  of  the  Explorations  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, 1889-1890."     G.  F.  Putnam  &  Sons,  1897. 

446 


Jj^    JEt.  52]     MUSEUM    OF   SCIENCE   AND   ART 

was  defrayed  jointly  by  himself  and  Mrs.  Phebc  A.  Hearst. 
By  special  agreement  with  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  at 
Washington,  the  expedition  was  placed  under  the  direction 
of  the  late  Frank  Hamilton  Gushing,  with  the  understand- 
ing that  the  Smithsonian  Institution  should  receive  duplicates 
when  such  were  found,  and  should  publish  the  scientific 
results  of  the  expedition,  to  be  known  as  "The  Pepper- 
Hearst  Expedition."  These  results — i.e.,  the  discovery,  at 
Key  Marco  and  Key  Demorey,  of  Ancient  Floridan  pile 
dwellings  and  of  a  highly  specialized  civilization — created  a 
profound  sensation  among  Americanists.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  Mr.  Cushing's  death  occurred  before  the  publication  of 
the  Memoir  upon  the  discoveries  which  promised  to  be  of 
so  much  interest  to  scholars.  The  manuscript,  however,  is 
stated  to  be  in  such  shape  as  to  warrant  the  hope  that  it  may 
soon  be  published.  Having  heard,  whilst  in  Chicago,  that 
Dr.  Maximilian  Uhle's  notable  work  in  Peru  and  Bolivia, 
for  the  Berlin  Museum,  was  at  an  end,  the  chairman  of  the 
Museum  Committee,  Mrs.  Stevenson,  urged  upon  Dr.  Pepper 
the  expediency  of  taking  this  well-known  archaeologist  into 
the  service  of  the  Department,  thus  avoiding  the  expense  of 
the  journey  and  equipment.  Dr.  Bastian,  of  Berlin,  having 
consented  to  the  arrangement,  Dr.  Pepper,  Mr.  Charles  H. 
Cramp,  and  Mr.  Tower  made  themselves  responsible  for  the 
cost  of  the  first  year's  contract,  and  Dr.  Uhle  transferred 
his  services  from  the  Berlin  Museum  to  the  Department  of 
Archeology  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  expe- 
dition lasted  three  years,  during  which  extensive  collections 
were  made  and  important  excavations  were  conducted  on  the 
site  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Pachacamac.  Here  inter- 
esting discoveries  were  made,  an  illustrated  report  of  which 
is  now  in  process  of  publication.     The  expenses  of  the  last 

447  ^ 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

two  years  of  the  expedition  were   borne   entirely  by  Dr. 
Pepper. 

In  the  Egyptian  field  the  result  of  the  relations  established, 
in  1891,  with  the  Egyptian  Exploration  Fund  on  the  one 
hand  and  Mr.  W.  M.  Flinders  on  the  other,  had  proved  so 
eminently  satisfactory  that  for  the  time  it  was  not  deemed 
wise  to  divert  interest  from  other  fields  in  order  to  undertake 
an  independent  expedition.  Interesting  authentic  series  were 
sent  to  Philadelphia  from  year  to  year  illustrative  of  the  arts 
and  industries  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Nile  Valley,  and  the 
Egyptian  collection,  carefully  studied,  classified,  and  labelled, 
gradually  came  to  be  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  in  this 
country.  The  responsibility  of  raising  the  funds  necessary 
for  the  work  of  the  section  after  the  first  year  had  been  en- 
tirely assumed  by  Mrs.  Stevenson.  In  1894,  after  traces  of 
extensive  and  close  intercourse  existing  between  Egypt  and 
the  Mediterranean  area  at  a  remote  period  had  been  revealed 
by  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Petrie  and  others,  the  Mediterranean 
field  of  research  was  added  to  the  section.^  A  typical  col- 
lection, carefully  classified,  derived  from  the  excavations  of 
Dr.  Max  Ohnefalsch  Richter  in  Cyprus,  was  obtained,  and 
the  following  year.  Dr.  Pepper  and  Mrs.  Stevenson  having 
been  invited  to  represent  Philadelphia  on  the  Committee  of 
the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America  in  charge  of  the 
projected  School  of  Classical  Studies  at  Rome,  arrangements 
were  perfected  with  Professor  Arthur  L.  Frothingham,  As- 
sistant Director  of  the  School,  to  organize  excavations  to  be 
conducted  under  his  supervision  in  the  Etruscan  region. 
Again  Dr.  Pepper  made  himself  personally  responsible  for  the 
outlay.     Eventually,  however,  Mrs.  Phebe  A.  Hearst  having 


^  October  15,  1894. 

448 


Et.  52]      MUSEUM    OF   SCIENCE   AND   ART 


become  interested  in  this  branch  of  the  work,  it  was  prosecuted 
in  the  name  of  the  American  Exploration  Society,  at  her  ex- 
pense. As  a  result  a  superb  collection  was  brought  together 
from  tombs  ranging  from  the  earlier  burials  of  the  Villanova 
type  to  the  chamber  tombs  of  later  times  opened  at  the 
Necropoles  of  Narce,  Vulci,  Chiusi,  Albano,  Toscanella,  and 
other  sites;  and  important  objects  of  special  interest  were 
obtained  by  purchase  to  supplement  the  series  and  to  make 
it  truly  illustrative  of  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  inhabitants 
of  Italy. 

In   1896,  after  a  visit  to  Italy,  Honorable  John  Wana- 
maker  joined  in  the  work.     Several  tombs  at  Orviete,  Ardea, 
and  Civita-Castellana  were  opened  at  his  expense,  and  impor- 
tant accessions  were  then  made  to  the  series  of  painted  vases. 
I  Later  a  beautiful  collection  of  gold  jewelry,  purchased  by 
!j  him,  was  presented  to  the  Museum.     It  was  especially  valu- 
Ij  able,  inasmuch  as  it  completed  the  illustration  of  Etruscan 
I  arts  and  industries. 

I       Dr.  Pepper  did  not  limit  his  interest  to  archaeology :  he 
I  also  aimed  at  developing  the  section  of  general  ethnology, 
I  and  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  promote  its  progress.     The 
I    Museum  is  indebted  to  him  for  an  extensive  collection  from 
the  Pacific  Islands,  known  as  the  Cope  collection,  as  well  as 
for  many  smaller  collections.     He  wisely  discouraged  pur- 
chases as  a  matter  of  policy  and  devoted  his  main  efforts  to 
the  encouragement  of  original  research  and  scientific  expedi- 
tions.    Indeed,  he  felt  strongly  impelled  personally  to  take 
up  some  branch  of  the  Museum's  work,  and  was  inclined  to 
make  anthropology  and  anthropometry  his  special  care  some 
day,  when  relieved  from  the  pressure  of  his  many  activities. 
He  had  long  desired  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  science. 

With  this    object  in  view,  in   1893  he    made  a  serious 
29  449 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1897 

effort  to  secure  for  the  University  the  services  of  Dr.  Franz 
Boaz,  with  whose  admirable  work  at  the  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion he  had  been  strongly  impressed.  He  hoped  to  perfect! 
a  joint  arrangement  between  the  Wistar  Institute  and  the 
Department  of  Archaeology,  by  which  anthropological  re- 
search might  be  developed  at  the  Museum  and  anthro- 
pometry might  be  added  to  the  work  of  the  Institute,  both 
departments  to  be  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Boas.  His  plans 
miscarried,  however,  and  the  subsequent  arrangements  en- 
tered upon  by  Dr.  Boas  with  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  were  a  disappointment  to  him.^ 

In  1892,  when  the  Australian  explorer  Carl  Lumholtz 
came  to  this  country  with  the  idea  of  visiting  little-known 
regions  of  the  Sierra  Madrc  and  applied  for  financial  sup- 
port. Dr.  Pepper  at  once  subscribed  one  thousand  dollars 
to  the  expedition,  which  was  eventually  conducted  under  the 
auspices  of  the  New  York  Museum  of  Natural  History. 
Thanks  to  his  timely  liberality,  however,  a  typical  collection 
was  thus  secured.  On  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Talcott  Williams's 
expedition  to  Morocco,  Dr.  Pepper  again  took  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  to  secure  a  collection  from  the  Atlas  region, 
and  an  excellent  series  was  the  result  of  the  expedition.  In 
1897,  Mr.  Mcllhenny,  prior  to  his  departure  for  the  north- 
west coast,  called  upon  Dr.  Pepper,  who  once  more  manifested 
his  interest  by  promising  three  thousand  five  hundred  dollars 
to  the  explorer  should  he  pledge  himself  to  collect  for  the 
Museum.  Although  detained  at  Point  Barrow  by  an  unfor- 
tunate accident,  Mr.  Mcllhenny  brought  home  a  series  of 
considerable  interest.  When  he  returned,  after  a  year's  ab- 
sence. Dr.  Pepper  was  no  more,  but  the  obligation  contracted 


^  This  appears  in  a  series  of  letters  on  the  subject. 
450 


-ffiT.  54]     MUSEUM    OF   SCIENCE   AND   ART 

by  him  for  the  Department  was  personally  assumed  by  Hon- 
orable John  Wanamaker,  who  presented  the  collection  to  the 
Museum. 

The  above  affords  but  a  glimpse  of  Dr.  Pepper's  princely 
generosity  and  of  his  untiring  and  multiplied  efforts  during 
the  four  years  of  his  term  as  the  responsible  head  of  the 
Museum. 

In  none  of  his  many  activities  did  the  peculiar  qualities 
of  his  mind  shine  forth  so  brilliantly  as  they  did  when,  after 
resigning  the  executive  office  of  the  University,  he  accepted 
the  presidency  of  the  Department  of  Archaeology. 

To  him  this  new  scientific  field  presented  at  every  turn 
special  problems  which  he  was  called  upon  to  solve;  and 
he  ,had  to  face  numerous  difficulties  created  by  unfamiliar 
national  and  international  connections  for  which  nothing  in 
his  previous  experience  had  prepared  him.  He  readily  mas- 
tered the  situation. 

He  received,  of  course,  efficient  assistance,  and  in  his 
leadership  was  often  guided  by  the  suggestions  of  others ; 
but,  always  self-reliant,  his  powerful  mind  soon  asserted  itself, 
and  his  clear  perceptions  enabled  him  to  outlive  extensive  and 
original  departures  in  museum  management.  He  mapped 
out  a  broad  policy  of  co-operation  which,  had  he  lived, 
must  have  made  a  profound  impression  upon  American 
archaeological  institutions.  Under  his  administration  special 
working  relations  were  established  with  the  Peabody  Museum 
at  Harvard,  with  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the  Bureau 
of  American  Ethnology  at  Washington,  as  well  as  with  the 
Egypt  Exploration  Fund  and  the  Egyptian  Research  Ac- 
count in  England.  In  accepting  the  presidency  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Society  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of 
America,   and    in    establishing   the   American    Exploration 

451 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1897 

Society,  of  which  he  was  also  the  first  President,  he  planned 
to  link  the  local  interests  of  the  Department  of  Archseology 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  with  the  general  archso- 
logical  interests  of  the  country.  He  foresaw  a  time  when 
the  scientific  museums  of  the  United  States  might  to  their 
mutual  advantage  enter  into  an  alliance,  and  when  by  work- 
ing in  a  closer  co-operation  they  might  better  perform  their 
function  at  a  minimum  cost  to  the  public,  by  reducing  the 
existing  tendency  to  a  duplication  of  effort. 

In  the  words  of  his  successor,  Mr.  Baugh  :  ^  "  Thus  it  was  that 
this  eminent  physician,  burdened  with  an  exacting  daily  practice, 
this  distinguished  author  of  important  medical  works,  this  public- 
spirited  citizen,  who  was  always  found  in  the  lead  of  every  progres- 
sive movement  having  for  its  object  the  promotion  of  public  educa- 
tion, of  public  health,  and  of  public  prosperity,  was  finding  his 
place  among  the  advanced  thinkers  on  the  subject  of  museum  policy, 
and,  had  he  lived,  must  soon  have  been  recognized  as  one  of  our 
leading  museum  men.  In  the  four  brief  years  of  his  administra- 
tion he  not  only  set  the  stamp  of  his  strong  personality  upon  the 
scientific  conduct  of  the  work,  but  he  obtained  from  the  city  the 
land  and  appropriations  necessary  to  carry  out  his  museum  schemes 
and  privately  raised  over  half  a  million  dollars  for  their  support. 
And  this  he  did  whilst  carrying  the  burden  of  the  many  public 
responsibilities,  the  success  of  which  testifies  to  the  well-nigh  un- 
limited scope  of  his  public  usefulness." 

The  Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  was  Dr.  Pepper's  last  creation,  and  it  was 
upon  its  welfare  that,  when  he  felt  he  was  approaching  his 


^  See  address  of  Daniel  Baugh,  Esq.,  of  the  Department  of  Ar- 
chaeology and  Paleontology,  November,  1898.  Memorial  Meeting 
held  in  the  Chapel  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

452 


JEt.  54]     MUSEUM    OF   SCIENCE   AND   ART 

end,  he  bestowed  the  greatest  solicitude.^  Only  twenty  days 
before  his  death  he  sought  in  a  codicil  added  to  his  will  to 
soften  the  blow  which  his  possible  loss  must  inflict  upon 
the  young  institution.  This  was  the  last  official  act  of  a 
man  who  had  ungrudgingly  sacrificed  his  life  to  the  public 
welfare  and  who  had  ever  shown  himself  consistently  devoted, 
generous,  and  thoughtful  of  others. 


^  His  widow,  acting  upon  his  expressed  wish,  has  since  endowed 
the   "  William    Pepper    Hall"  at   the    Museum   with   the   sum   of 

$50,000. 


453 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1882 

V 

INCIDENTS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS 
1882-1896 

EARLY  in  the  year  1882,  his  child,  Thomas  Sergeant 
Pepper,  a  boy  of  rare  promise,  died  of  diphtheria. 
In  June  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pepper,  with  their  sons  Wil- 
liam and  Benjamin  Frankhn,  sailed  from  Philadelphia  for 
Liverpool.  When  two  days  out,  Mrs.  Pepper  was  taken 
with  diphtheria,  but  under  skilful  treatment  she  made  a  rapid 
recovery.  The  captain  of  the  steamship,  the  "  Ohio,"  Henry 
Morrison,  contributed  much  to  her  comfort,  having  promptly 
given  up  the  chart-room  for  her  use. 

Only  a  few  incidents  of  this  foreign  visit  are  preserved. 
Dr.  Pepper  met  Matthew  Arnold,  and  he  has  left  a  few  notes 
of  an  interesting  conversation  about  Oxford. 

He  lunched  with  Max  Miiller  and  his  pleasant  wife,  and 
had  a  long  conversation  over  the  organization  and  present 
tendency  of  Oxford,  with  which  Miiller  expressed  himself 
much  dissatisfied.  There  was  a  jealousy,  Miiller  said,  among 
the  colleges  towards  the  university  professor.  Miiller  believed 
that  the  professorate  had  declined  in  dignity  and  influence, — 
a  calamity  which  he  attributed  to  the  excessive  influence  of 
the  young  Masters  of  Art.  Not  long  before,  he  brought  to 
the  Commission  of  Education  a  plan  for  advanced  fellow- 
ships for  men  of  learning  who  had  produced  good  work,  but 
it  had  been  rejected  and  the  old  method  approved.  Miiller 
no  longer  thought  that  Oxford  favored  real  learning,  but  so 
far  as  its  influence  went  made  such  learning  impossible ;  the 

454 


^T.  39]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

tendency,  he  said,  was  towards  mediocrity.  For  all  this  he 
blamed  the  public  schools,  which,  he  asserted,  badly  prepared 
the  boys  coming  up  to  college. 

Dr.  Pepper  met  William  Spottiswood,  president  of  the 
Royal  Society,  who  invited  him  to  spend  Sunday  at  his 
country  place  in  Kent,  an  invitation  he  was  unable  to  accept. 
He  expressed  surprise  at  the  combination  of  business  man 
and  mathematical  genius  in  Spottiswood,  who,  in  reply,  re- 
marked that  mathematics  was  his  relaxation. 

He  took  luncheon  with  Sir  Henry  and  Lady  Holland. 
Lady  Holland  was  Macaulay's  favorite  niece.  Lord  Hol- 
land complained  of  hard  work  in  Parliament  and  of  insom- 
nia. "  He  looks  overworked,"  writes  Dr.  Pepper,  "  but  his 
immense  energy  is  irresistible."  At  the  time  of  this  visit 
Lord  Holland  was  Chief  Secretary  tor  Ireland.  With  Lord 
Playfair,  who  represented  one  of  the  Scotch  universities  in 
Parliament,  and  was  chairman  of  one  of  the  house  com- 
mittees. Dr.  Pepper  had  an  interesting  conversation  on  the 
comparative  value  of  English  and  Scotch  methods  of  uni- 
versity organization.  The  distinguished  Scotchman  firmly 
believed  in  the  superiority  of  the  Scotch  system.  He  had 
introduced  a  bill  for  improving  secondary  education  in  Scot- 
land and  had  defended  it  in  an  able  speech.  Dr.  Pepper 
thought  him  "  tremendously  overworked ;  not  deep  or  origi- 
nal, but  active,  energetic,  and  persevering." 

In  a  letter  home,  written  soon  after,  he  unconsciously  gives 
an  insight  into  his  own  life :  "  I  have  little  fear  of  any  man 
hurting  himself  by  work  as  long  as  he  has  reasonable  suc- 
cess. It  is  the  infernal  combination  of  working  all  day  and 
every  day  as  hard  as  is  in  you,  and  yet  finding  yourself 
baffled  at  every  turn,  that  breaks  the  heart ; "  in  other  words, 
success  is  a  kind  of  immortality. 

455 


I 

WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1884 

In  1884  he  seems  to  have  had  in  preparation  an  address   1 
on  Great  Men  from  a  Physician's  Stand-point.^     It  is  perhaps 
as  well  to  present  the  memoranda  as  he  prepared  them : 

"  SLEEP. 

"  Many  platitudes  about  this ;  as  a  fact,  many  can  do  with  less 
than  eight  or  even  seven  [hours]  while  working  hard,  provided  they 
recognize  the  increased  risk ;  that  while  running  their  engine  they 
take  more  scrupulous  care  with  every  part  of  the  machinery.  Ma- 
chine must  be  perfect,  fuel  ditto ;  everything  must  be  sacrificed  to 
the  one  point  of  keeping  the  machinery  running  thus  : 

"  Subjection  of  carnal,  emotional  excesses  ;  certainty  that  no  weak 
spots  exist ;  diet,  especially  too  much  eating,  too  fast  eating ;  stimu- 
lants, tobacco,  open-air  exercises,  cool-headed,  almost  callous,  criti- 
cal analysis  of  one's  self;  one's  sensations  and  efFect  of  work  on 
the  system  ;  clear  knowledge  of  danger-lines  ;  result,  avoidance  of 
transgressing  and  immediate  summons  at  right  time.  This  involves 
a  clear  conscience  or  a  callous  one. 

"  Ability  to  sleep  at  will,  which  no  one  ever  could  do  with  cer- 
tainty, except  on  the  recognition  of  a  certain  stage  of  mental  and 
body  fatigue,  which  gets  to  be  well  known,  and  the  result  an  unva- 
rying obedience  to  the  call  of  these  sensations,  almost  with  no 
regard  to  time,  place,  or  circumstances. 

"  Humboldt's  life  in  later  years — marvellous  effects  of  short  naps 
if  taken  at  the  right  time ;  ruinous  results  of  forcing  one's  self  past 
the  danger-signal,  of  driving  the  brain  when  jaded, — e.g.^  you  sit  to 
write  at  nine  p.m.,  after  a  fatiguing  day ;  at  eleven  a  great  weariness 
seizes  you,  etc.,  of  course  implies  exceptional  will  power,  excep- 
tional self-consciousness,  and  a  work  not  too  much  subject  to  crisis 
— refer  to  John  F.  Meigs's  memoir  of  his  father  and  to  my  own 
habits,  giving  sketch  of  my  life  in  1883,  for  instance — close  connec- 
tion with  diet. 


*  MSS.  on  paper  bearing  printed  date  September,  1884. 

456 


jet.^i]   incidents  and  characteristics 

"  Habits  of  literary  men,  rather  of  great  men,  for  almost  all  great 
men  must  be  great  writers.  Genius  is  the  power  of  sustaining 
concentrated  attention  in  a  rare  degree.  Times  for  more  actual 
laborious  effort  than  commonly  imagined,  of  ordinary  dietetics  and 
hygiene,  are  concerned  with  the  average  man.  For  the  establishment 
of  their  rules  no  weight  attaches  to  the  exceptional  individuals  in  any 
community  who  display  the  highest  physical  and  intellectual  health 
and  vigor  still  pursuing  courses  of  life  admissibly  injurious.  It  is 
now  with  these  exceptional  individuals  to  a  considerable  extent  that 
we  must  concern  ourselves,  and  we  must  consider  how  it  comes  to 
be  that  [they]  are  able  to  disregard  apparently  the  usual  rules." 

His  habit  of  working  all  day  and  every  day  as  hard  as 
was  in  him  may  be  illustrated  by  outlining  an  average  day 
of  his  life.  He  arose  at  a  quarter  of  seven,  took  a  cold 
sponge  bath,  and  was  in  his  office  at  7.15,  from  which  time 
he  dictated  letters  and  opinions  for  an  hour,  breakfasting 
while  seeing  patients,  which  together  with  all  sorts  of  busi- 
ness occupied  him  till  1 1 .30.  His  medical  lectures,  twice 
a  week,  occurred  at  twelve  or  one,  as  the  roster  committee 
might  arrange.  Till  half-past  two  he  was  in  consultation, 
and  usually  in  his  office  from  half-past  two  until  four.  His 
luncheon,  always  a  light  one,  was  taken  in  his  office.  He 
was  in  consultation  till  7.15,  excepting  the  time — usually 
5.30  to  6.30,  four  times  a  week — given  to  lectures.  He  dined 
often  with  company  at  home  or  elsewhere.  He  was  again  in 
consultation  from  8.30  until  ten,  from  which  later  hour  he 
dictated  to  one  of  his  stenographers  until  past  midnight,  fre- 
quently till  2.30.  This  division  of  time,  with  minor  variations, 
was  maintained  habitually.  He  insisted  that  such  labor  was 
only  possible  by  moderate,  slow  eating,  thorough  chewing, 
and  short  naps  of  five  minutes  at  any  time  or  place. 

Some  people  who  did  not  know  him  accused  him  of 

457 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1884 

merely  posing  when,  before  replying  to  a  difficult  question 
involving  serious  interests,  he  would  say,  "  Let  me  sleep  five 
minutes,  then  waken  me  and  we  will  talk  it  over,"  and  rolling 
up  his  eyes  like  a  tired  child,  he  would  suddenly  fall  asleep. 
They  did  not  know  the  life  that  he  lived ;  that  every  minute 
was  crowded  with  work  and  that  these  brief  naps  were  his 
only  means  for  relaxation. 

On  one  occasion,  at  a  theatre-party  which  he  was  giving, 
after  some  fifteen  minutes,  he  excused  himself,  and  was 
gone  three-quarters  of  an  hour.  Remaining  a  short  time, 
he  excused  himself  again,  and  was  gone  nearly  as  long.  He 
then  returned  for  a  moment,  and  excused  himself  a  third 
time.  He  had  appeared  at  three  functions,  at  two  of  which 
he  had  made  formal  addresses ;  the  third  disappearance  was 
for  a  consultation.  While  under  great  pressure  of  work  he 
occasionally  worked  thirty-six  or  even  forty-eight  hours 
without  interruption  except  for  a  bite  of  food.  This  was 
in  the  last  five  years  of  his  life,  while  he  was  devoting  all 
his  energies  to  civil  affairs. 

His  election  to  the  Provostship  was  a  fruitful  event,  largely 
shaping  his  own  life  and  that  of  the  city.  He  undertook 
the  office  with  the  high  ideal  of  co-ordinating  the  educa- 
tional opportunities  of  the  city  and  the  State  about  the 
University  as  a  centre.  This  stupendous  task  was  no  easier 
in  Philadelphia  than  in  any  other  conservative  community. 
He  found  the  University  a  respectable  school;  he  trans- 
formed it  into  a  real  university, — created  thirteen  departments, 
erected  above  twenty  costly  and  appropriate  buildings  for  its 
use,  increased  the  Faculty  from  a  corps  of  ninety  to  one  of 
nearly  three  hundred,  and  the  attendance  from  eight  hundred 
to  above  twenty-eight  hundred.  For  the  endowment  and 
use  of  the  institution  he  raised  over  four  million  dollars,  and 

4S8 


.Et.  4i]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

added  more  than  forty  acres  in  the  heart  of  the  city  to  its 
campus.  Not  least  among  his  services  was  the  co-ordination 
of  the  public-school  system  of  the  city  with  the  courses  in 
the  University. 

Meanwhile  he  planned  even  larger  things,  and  with  char- 
acteristic boldness  proceeded  to  execute  his  program.  A 
great  system  of  museums  should  be  founded,  illustrative  of 
commerce,  art,  science,  history,  anthropology, — an  educa- 
tional unit,  centring  about  the  University  and  free  to  the 
people.  It  should  constitute  a  unique  opportunity,  and 
should  be  under  the  care  and  protection  of  the  municipality. 
Now,  such  a  program  as  this  might  seem  possible  of  execu- 
tion in  a  new  city,  springing  up  out  of  the  earth  in  a  day, 
but  somewhat  chimerical  in  an  old  and  staid  community 
like  Philadelphia.  Vested  rights  are  a  terrible  obstacle  to 
some ;  they  were  an  opportunity  to  Dr.  Pepper.  The  story 
is  told  that  long  ago  a  company  of  Philadelphians  were  stay- 
ing once  at  a  summer  hotel,  and  had  retired  for  an  afternoon 
nap.  This  was  suddenly  cut  short  by  a  tremendous  noise 
in  the  hall.  One  exasperated  guest  opened  her  door  to  ex- 
postulate, when  she  caught  sight  of  a  four-year-old  boy  in 
pink  kilts  marching  down  the  hall,  armed  with  two  sticks, 
and  alternately  beating  on  the  doors  and  shouting  at  the  top 
of  his  lungs :  "  No  one  shall  sleep  in  this  house  this  after- 
noon, I  say,  if  I  can  help  it  I"  It  was  William  Pepper. 
Fifty  years  later  the  story  was  told  to  some  friends,  one  of 
whom  added:  "And  no  one  has  slept  in  Philadelphia  for 
years  because  of  that  same  William  Pepper."  He  levied 
tribute  right  and  left,  on  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
and  acted  withal  in  a  strikingly  bold  and  irresistible  way. 
After  some  thirty  years  of  such  action  his  pubhc  account 
stood  something  like  this : 

459 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

Institutions  founded :  the  University  Hospital,  the  Com- 
mercial Museums,  and  the  Philadelphia  Free  Library.  In- 
stitution reorganized  and  recreated :  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Public  reforms:  the  improvement  of  the  city's 
water  supply  and  an  entire  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
public  mind  towards  education  and  the  ideals  of  life.  To 
carry  out  these  plans  Dr.  Pepper  raised  above  ten  million 
dollars  and  secured  about  a  hundred  acres  of  land  from  the 
municipality,  lying  near  the  heart  of  Philadelphia.  To  the 
execution  of  this  task  he  gave  the  service  of  one  of  the 
most  acute  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  practical  minds 
ever  vouchsafed  to  man.  To  this  service  of  his  genius  he 
added  the  personal  gift  of  nearly  half  a  million  dollars, 
which  he  earned  in  the  practice  of  an  exacting  profession. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  other  American  has  run  a 
like  career. 

He  did  not  escape  the  penalty  of  his  devotion  to  work. 
Life  became  an  arduous  routine,  in  large  labors  it  is  true, 
but,  notwithstanding,  routine.  He  enjoyed  his  social  rela- 
tions, but  made  a  nice  division  of  time  in  attending  to  them ; 
often  complaining  of  the  endless  and  pitiless  dinners  which 
he  had  to  attend,  but  finding  comfort  in  their  results,  which 
usually  were  the  awakening  of  interest  in  some  new  ally 
who  would  give  aid  and  support  to  one  or  more  of  the  many 
enterprises  in  which  he  was  engaged. 

"  Do  you  know  a  danger  which  I  now  foresee  ?"  inquired  he 
in  a  letter  to  a  friend  early  in  1893.  "  ^^  ^^  ^^^  rekindling  of  my 
enthusiasm.  It  used  to  burn  in  my  heart  like  a  red-hot  iron. 
For  twenty  years  I  hid  it  beneath  my  coat.  No  one  then  believed 
in  the  future  of  the  University.  Men  smiled  maliciously  to  my 
face  and  insulted  me  behind  my  back.  I  lost  most  of  the  friends 
of  my  youth ;  true,  loyal,  sincere  men,  united  to  me  by  youthful 

460 


^T.  50]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

vows  to  devote  our  lives  to  lift  science  and  education  and  the  level 
of  municipal  life  here.  One  after  another  they  left  me  by  the 
way,  overwhelmed  by  weariness,  contempt,  or  weakness.  I  feel 
old  and  solitary,  but  cheerful  and  joyous  enough.  Willingly  I 
would  live  each  hour  of  these  long  years,  errors,  falls,  sores,  for 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  to-day  others  more  carefully  equipped  than  I 
was  enter  the  arena  and  continue  the  struggle.  They  all  assure 
me  that  the  hour  to  withdraw  has  arrived ;  for,  after  all,  that  work 
has  not  been  even  half  of  my  life.  There  remains  the  study  of 
the  higher  science  of  medicine,  which  requires  strength,  money,  and 
devotion."  ' 

The  awakening  of  his  ambition  undoubtedly  shortened 
his  life,  but  it  resulted  in  the  creation  of  the  Free  Public 
Library,  the  Commercial  Museums,  and  the  Free  Museum 
of  Science  and  Art.  These  institutions  were  the  crown  of 
his  career.  They  embodied  the  culmination  of  a  life  of 
labor  devoted  to  the  highest  ideals  and  were  the  logical 
result  of  such  a  life  as  he  had  lived.  When  he  decided  to 
retire  from  the  government  of  the  University,  he  realized 
correctly  the  unique  opportunity  before  him.  As  Provost 
of  the  University  his  efforts  could  not  with  many  persons 
awaken  sympathy  and  support.  They  were  not  interested 
in  the  establishment  of  new  departments  in  the  University ; 
that  field  was  an  old  one,  and  had  been  more  or  less  thor- 
oughly worked ;  but  they  could  not  resist  the  attractions  of 
new  enterprises  in  perhaps  a  larger  field  such  as  Dr.  Pepper 
could  now  open  before  them.  He  had  thoroughly  exploited 
the  private  wealth  of  Philadelphia  in  his  services  to  the  Uni- 
versity, but  all  along  there  had  been  a  group  of  men  of  large 
wealth  who  had  stood  aloof  from  the  institution  and  who 


^  MS.  letter  in  French  to  Mrs.  Cornelius  Stevenson. 
461 


WILLIAM   PEPPER  [1893 

wielded  extraordinary  power  in  the  world  of  affairs.  Their 
wealth  was  increasing  at  an  enormous  rate.  They  were  men 
of  keen  perception  and  liberal  views.  Dr.  Pepper  looked  to 
them  for  support  in  his  new  undertakings. 

The  last  five  years  of  his  life  were  consumed  in  a  campaign 
among  these,  who  were  approached  in  a  thousand  ways. 
He  appealed  to  their  public  spirit,  to  their  personal  pride,  to 
their  love  of  family,  and,  above  all,  to  their  sound  judgment 
as  friends  of  science  and  art.  The  response  was  immediate 
and  generous.  They  gave  him  nearly  three-quarters  of  a 
million  dollars.  No  other  man  would  have  commanded 
their  support. 

A  greater  labor  was  the  political  campaign  on  behalf  of 
the  Library  and  the  Museums.  Land  must  be  obtained  from 
Councils  upon  which  to  locate  buildings,  and  this  land  must 
be  near  the  University.  In  order  to  influence  Councils, 
politicians  of  national  repute  must  be  reached  and  the  politi- 
cal machine  in  Pennsylvania  be  set  in  motion  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  new  enterprise.  Of  the  two  campaigns, — one 
among  men  and  women  of  wealth,  the  other  among  poli- 
ticians,— the  second  was  far  the  more  laborious  and  exhaust- 
ing. With  men  of  the  former  class  he  could  deal  directly 
and  could  depend  on  what  they  said.  Indirection  and  insin- 
cerity awaited  him  as  soon  as  he  turned  to  the  politicians. 
But  he  did  not  hesitate.  He  knew  quite  as  well  as  Horace 
Walpole,  that  every  man  has  his  price.  With  some  it  was 
social  position,  with  others,  an  office  or  a  name.  Whatever 
the  price,  Dr.  Pepper  had  the  courage  to  face  the  situation 
and  to  utilize  the  man  if  possible.  The  amount  of  personal 
canvassing  which  he  did  was  amazing,  but  it  was  made  pos- 
sible only  by  turning  night  into  day  and,  as  it  were,  by 
lengthening  the  hours. 

462 


JEt.  50]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

His  interest  in  the  intellectual  growth  of  the  city  had  been 
quickened  by  the  labors  of  a  lifetime,  and  in  all  questions 
looking  towards  better  conditions  and  a  higher  civic  life  he 
could  not  be  a  passive  spectator.  There  could  be  no  rest  for 
such  a  spirit.  Rest,  such  as  other  men  usually  seek,  to  him 
was  not  merely  distasteful,  but  painful. 

The  University  was  to  him  the  dearest  thing  on  earth, 
because  it  embodied  the  ideals  of  his  life.  His  passion  for 
it  can  be  understood  only  by  those  whose  lives  have  been 
cast  for  a  long  period  in  higher  educational  work.  For  a 
short  time  he  committed  the  error  of  fancying  that  his  retire- 
ment from  the  Provostship  would  seriously  affect  his  standing 
in  the  world.  He  greatly  overestimated  the  importance  of 
the  office.  Like  all  men  who  have  built  up  an  institution, 
he  was  doubtful  of  the  continuance  of  its  prosperity  under 
other  hands ;  and  here  he  was  at  odds  with  one  of  the  work- 
ing principles  of  his  life,  expressed  by  him  many  times  in 
the  saying,  "Men  die;  institutions  live." 

With  all  his  wonderful  penetration  he  was  unable  to  see 
that  for  all  practical  purposes  the  University  could  be  carried 
on  without  him.  He  had  set  the  pace  of  its  progress,  and 
henceforth  a  hesitating  or  palsied  step  in  its  career  could  not 
fail  to  be  detected  by  the  world.  He  thought  of  it  as  a 
child, — as  a  father  thinks  of  a  fair  daughter  whom  he  hesitates 
to  give  into  the  keeping  of  another.  All  these  thoughts 
swept  in  upon  him  as  he  contemplated  resigning,  and  they 
cost  him  some  painful  moments.  But  from  the  dark  moods 
into  which  they  plunged  him  he  returned  to  light  and  a 
calm  judgment,  as  he  thought  of  the  work  he  had  done  in 
the  University,  of  the  intimate  relations  which  he  had  estab- 
lished between  it  and  the  city,  and  of  the  larger  work  which 
the  training  of  long  years  had  prepared  him  now  to  do. 

463 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

A  year  before  his  retirement  he  fought  out  the  battle ;  he 
made  his  decision.  "  To-night  I  know  all  is  right,"  he  wrote, 
"I  can  sleep  and  awaken  gay  and  strong  once  more."^  But 
his  gayety  and  strength  were  soon  put  to  the  test.  He  was 
an  old  man,  though  still  young  in  years;  his  health  was 
breaking,  and  from  this  time  until  the  end  he  never  knew  a 
well  day. 

"  The  days  are  few,"  he  writes,  "  and  the  crush  of  work  makes 
them  short.  So  little  accomplished  :  '  the  petty  done,  the  undone 
vast.'  I  must  work  harder.  The  very  rich  people  are  nearly  all 
a  little  trying.  One  must  be  a  duke  to  bear  a  long  rent  roll  and 
yet  be  as  easy  as  an  old  shoe.  When  the  opposition  begins  to 
abuse  and  threaten,  I  really  feel  success  is  very  likely." 

"  It  is  very  disturbing,"  he  writes  again,  on  receiving  the  news 
of  the  death  of  Mr.  Anthony  J.  Drexel.  "  A  few  years  ago  what 
great  hopes  all  would  have  had ;  now,  of  course,  whatever  is  done 
must  and  should  be  altogether  for  the  Drexel  Institute.  His  death 
will  make  a  great  difference,  and  will  be  a  great  loss  to  Philadel- 
phia. It  must  cause  a  shaking  of  the  centre  of  gravity.  How 
close  these  little  incidents  are  beginning  to  come  to  me  and  some 
of  the  rest,  notwithstanding  which  I  do  not  doubt  I  shall  live  to  be 
a  hundred.  I  read  this  morning,  at  5.30,  the  biography  and  auto- 
biography of  Sterne,  in  the  introduction  to  his  works ;  admirable, 
candid  and  brief.     So  little  difference  any  of  us  really  make."  * 

But  this  confession  of  immortality  did  not  diminish  his 
zeal.     Millionaires  die ;  the  work  of  the  world  must  go  on. 

No  small  part  of  the  new  campaign  was  to  discover  new 
men,  and  Dr.  Pepper's  letters  abound  at  this  time  in  reference 
to  the  results  of  his  search  for  them.  One  young  man  of  great 
wealth,  who  spent  his  time  "in  sleep,  tennis,  and  dancing, 


'  MS.,  June  13,  1893.  '  MS.,  July  i,  1893. 

464 


.^T.  50]     INCIDENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

but  no  work,"  Dr.  Pepper  persuaded  to  abandon  coffee, 
tobacco,  and  wine,  and  literally  made  a  new  man  of  him. 
His  history  is  epitomized  in  one  sentence:  "He  will  do 
excellent  work."^ 

Wherever  he  might  be  he  carried  the  campaign  with  him. 
At  Northeast  Harbor,  amidst  the  pleasures  of  vacation,  new 
recruits  were  assiduously  secured. 

"  It  is  the  drollest  little  place,"  he  writes.  "  Quakers,  Uni- 
tarians ;  all  the  sects  are  here.  I  am  re-reading  Sterne ;  he  does 
me  great  good.  I  cannot  wonder  that  Jefferson  said  his  writings 
were  for  him  the  best  code  of  morals  ever  written.  Another  thing 
I  like  about  him  is  his  humorous  use  of  the  old  metaphysical  notion 
of  the  inherent  qualities  of  matter.  Uncle  Toby  rode  his  hobby- 
horse so  hard  '  because  he  had  so  much  hobby-horsical  matter  in 
his  make-up  ;'  pretty  near  the  truth.  It  would  make  not  a  stiver  of 
difference  if  I  were  to  learn  sure  that  death  is  to  be  the  end-all  and 
the  be-all  of  the  business  ;  the  work  is  here  ;  there  is  value  in  it. 
It  will  help  others  -,  we  cannot  let  it  alone  undone,  or  we  should  be 
more  unhappy  than  as  it  is.  Let  us  leave  teleology  alone.  Let  us 
not  try  to  look  too  far  ahead.  How  delicious  are  the  pangs  and 
quakes  and  then  the  glow  of  repulse  !  Let  us  put  our  standard  up 
so  high  we  cannot  possibly  succeed  fully,  but  we  shall  have  many 
delightful  moments  over  partial  achievement."  ^ 

Rest  and  recuperation  from  the  New  England  air  were 
not  long  his  portion.  His  professional  calls  were  loud  and 
exacting.  He  speaks  of  "sixty  hours  of  hard  travel  and 
travail  in  intense  heat  to  attend  a  consultation,"  and  com- 
plicated business  of  all  sorts  occupied  him  night  and  day. 
To  work  ceaselessly  till  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  to 
resume  it  at  half-past  six  were  common  with  him.     A  hun- 


MS.,  July  9,  1893.  '  MS.,  July  9,  July  17,  1893. 

30  46s 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1893 

dred  letters  written  and  half  as  many  telegrams  were  not 
unusual.  He  gave  his  supporters  no  rest.  They  were  sum- 
moned to  him  from  all  over  the  country.  He  was  a  man 
with  a  program.  In  this  way  everybody  was  reached,  and 
few  failed  to  respond.  Most  men  who  seek  rest  in  vacation 
in  the  Canadian  woods  or  in  New  England  cannot  say,  as 
did  Dr.  Pepper,  that  they  are  always  happy  when  the  vaca- 
tion months  are  over.  To  him  the  taking  of  pleasure  was  a 
somewhat  irksome  task.  He  never  learned  how  to  enjoy 
life  like  other  men. 

In  July,  1893,  came  the  encouraging  returns  from  his  new 
volume,  The  lext-Book  of  Medicine,  but  of  deeper  interest  to 
him  than  his  books  was  the  direction  he  was  giving  to  the 
archaeological  work  of  the  University, — the  excavations  at 
Nippur  and  in  other  quarters  of  the  globe.  The  expedi- 
tion's discoveries  had  been  well  received  among  scholars  in 
Europe.  "  I  count  on  that,"  wrote  Dr.  Pepper,  "  to  fire  up 
languid  spirits  in  November  after  the  pendulum  has  swung 
back  a  bit;"  this  written  in  July,  1893,  in  the  midst  of  the 
panic  of  that  year.  For  a  few  days  during  September  he 
gave  himself  unreservedly  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  Colum- 
bian Exposition.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  sons  and  a 
nephew ;  and  he  frequently  referred  afterwards  to  the  unal- 
loyed pleasures  of  this  outing. 

While  at  Northeast  Harbor  he  indulged  in  rather  vigorous 
exercise,  especially  rowing.  It  often  made  his  hands  "  trem- 
ble like  leaves,"  though  it  hardened  him  and  built  up  his 
health.  In  August,  1893,  he  speaks  of  himself  as  being 
"  perfectly  well,  brown,  and  strong,"  and  as  "  going  off  on  a 
row  of  many  miles  in  the  evening."  But  he  never  cared  for 
systematic  exercise,  depending  rather  for  health  upon  abste- 
miousness, moderation,  and  care.     He  conserved  his  physical 

466 


JEt.  50]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

energies  rather  than  exercised  them.  The  amusements  at 
such  a  place  as  Northeast  Harbor  palled  upon  him.  "  It  is 
a  tiresome  place,"  he  writes,  "  and  too  far  away,  and  the  tele- 
graph people  can  neither  read  nor  write."  ^  His  mind  was 
ever  turning  to  the  centre  of  his  activity,  Philadelphia ;  there 
he  was  happiest. 

He  was  a  believer  in  advertising;  he  knew  its  immense 
value.  His  relations  with  newspaper  men  were  cordial  and, 
with  a  few,  intimate.  Through  them  he  felt  the  public 
pulse.  His  policy  was  twofold :  to  keep  matters  out  of  the 
newspapers  as  well  as  to  put  matters  in.  The  first  is  often 
of  greater  importance.  University  news  was  more  or  less 
carefully  edited  before  it  was  suffered  to  appear  in  print. 
The  censorship  was  complete  and  fruitful. 

His  civic  services  brought  him  in  touch  with  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  reformers,  some  of  whom  made  grotesque  de- 
mands upon  him.  His  ideas  of  reform  would  not  have 
pleased  the  more  ardent  iconoclasts  could  they  have  known 
them.     Thus,  speaking  of  the  Municipal  League : ' 

"  Their  purpose  seems  to  be  the  old  business  of  putting  up  spe- 
cial candidates  for  special  little  offices,  spending  a  lot  of  money, 
and  getting  licked  like  thunder.  That  is  what  has  kept  me  off 
from  all  these  reform  movements ;  that,  instead  of  earnest  educa- 
tional work,  such  as  the  Civic  Club  is  doing,  and  Brinley  is  doing 
for  University  Extension,  they  go  into  ward  politics." 

Therefore,  he  put  himself  in  touch  with  the  regular  party 
leaders, — with  the  machine.  He  knew  that  he  could  not 
divert  these  leaders  nor  control  the  machine ;  therefore,  like 
a  wise  man,  he  preferred  to  utilize  both  as  he  found  them. 


*  MS.,  August  25,  1893.  ^  MS.,  February,  1894. 

467 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

Then,  too,  his  inborn  conservatism  drove  him  to  this  course. 
Experience  went  a  long  way  with  him,  and  especially  the 
experience  of  others. 

His  conservatism  as  to  reforms  and  reformers  was  a  source 
of  grave  trial  to  him,  and  he  was  frequently  brought  to  the 
test  in  his  campaign  among  politicians  on  behalf  of  the 
Museums.  He  found  ward  politics  rather  a  nasty  game, 
played  by  men  who  were  like  Charles  II.  in  Rochester's 
famous  epigram.  The  two  most  exasperating  things  in  life 
are  lies  and  insults ;  the  latter  probably  the  more  endurable. 
Dr.  Pepper  found  that  professional  politicians,  though  they 
did  not  lie  to  him,  did  not  tell  him  the  truth,  or  do  as  they 
promised.  The  political  campaign  for  the  Museums  was, 
therefore,  more  or  less  a  game  of  chance,  and  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  believe  that  some  with  whom  he  was  playing 
played  with  loaded  dice. 

It  is  a  humiliating  condition  of  affairs  that  great  enter- 
prises depend  upon  the  services  of  men  who  have  not  the 
remotest  notion  of  the  scope  and  character  of  the  ends  they 
are  made  to  serve.  The  loaves  and  fishes  of  ward  politics 
are  their  reward.  A  Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  means 
to  them  only  a  piece  of  work  done  for  the  machine.  How- 
ever humiliating  this  condition  of  society  may  seem,  it  pre- 
vails everywhere.  It  ramifies  into  the  smallest  hamlet  in  the 
Commonwealth ;  it  thrives  in  the  largest  municipality.  Dr. 
Pepper  had  the  courage  to  face  this  fact  and  to  act  accord- 
ingly. Another  man,  possessing  less  courage  and  vision  than 
he,  would  have  shrunk  from  the  contest  and  given  as  an 
excuse  his  own  nice  sense  of  the  proprieties.  Dr.  Pepper's 
morality  was  made  of  sterner  stuff;  he  took  men  as  he 
found  them.  His  morality  was  of  the  Hamiltonian  order, 
addressing  itself  immediately  to  the  hopes  and  fears  of  indi- 
ces 


i^T.  5i]     INCIDENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

viduals  and  attracting  to  itself  the  support  of  those  passions 
which  have  the  strongest  influence  upon  the  human  heart/ 
The  quahty  of  the  man  gave  occasion  for  his  critics  to  say 
that  he  would  have  made  a  famous  cardinal  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  another  Richelieu  or  Mazarin.  But  with 
him  the  rules  of  the  game  worked  completely;  he  won. 
Councils  granted  the  site  for  the  Museums,  an  ample  acreage 
adjoining  the  University  campus;  the  world  applauded;  but 
Dr.  Pepper  grew  older  and  physically  feebler,  aging  under 
the  exactions  of  the  toil. 

Having  determined  to  resign  the  Provostship,  he  filled  the 
closing  weeks  of  the  academic  year,  1893-94,  with  what  he 
describes  as  "crushing  work."  He  looked  forward  to  his 
release  with  eagerness.  His  temperament  was  too  sanguine, 
his  foresight  too  keen  and  accurate,  his  knowledge  of  him- 
self too  profound  to  permit  him  to  vacillate  or  to  indulge  in 
regret.  The  very  momentum  of  his  life  carried  him  forward, 
and  the  horizon  of  the  world  was  always  glowing  with  new 
and  large  enterprises.  He  saw  clearly  that  he  could  do  a 
large  work  for  the  University  when  he  was  freed  from  the 
Provostship.  He  could  throw  all  his  energies  into  the  exe- 
cution of  a  life  plan,  the  co-ordination  of  the  educational 
opportunities  of  his  native  city. 

Two  days  before  commencement,  1894,  he  was  seized  with 
one  of  his  quasi-despondent  moods. 

"  I  think,"  he  wrote,  "  I  am  vain  and  selfish,  and  have  an  exag- 
gerated notion  of  the  value  of  my  years  to  come.  The  truth  is,  I 
have  probably  struck  twelve ;  but  we  shall  see.  My  position  is 
difficult ;   I  will  try  to  do  my  best." 


'  The  Federalist,  No.  XVI. 

469 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

At  the  moment  of  writing  this  he  was  deep  in  the  fight 
for  the  Boulevard, — that  projected  magnificent  improvement 
of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  which  should  connect  the  City 
Hall  and  Fairmount  Park  by  a  suitable  avenue ;  and  he  was 
quite  confident  that  the  project  would  be  successful.  For  a 
time  after  he  had  sent  forth  his  letter  of  resignation,  on  the 
twenty-fourth  of  April,  he  had  curious  fancies  :  as,  that  the 
world  greeted  him  differently  than  when  he  was  Provost ; 
that  even  his  work  as  a  physician  was  affected  by  his  resig- 
nation. These  fancies,  the  more  curious  as  crowding  to  the 
brain  of  such  a  man  as  he,  were  soon  dispelled,  and  he 
speedily  discovered  that  in  his  case  the  man  was  greater  than 
the  office.  The  sick  and  ailing  continued  to  crowd  upon 
him,  the  vast  civic  interests  in  which  he  was  engaged  enlarged 
upon  his  view,  and  he  discovered  that  his  fate  and  his  fame 
were  not  hedged  in  by  the  presidency  even  of  a  great  Univer- 
sity. The  exacting  demands  of  his  consulting  practice  rolled 
in  upon  him  without  interruption,  and  he  was  called  hither 
and  yon  over  the  State  and  adjoining  States  just  as  before. 

The  important  thing  now  was  to  bring  pressure  and  influ- 
ence to  bear  upon  City  Councils  for  the  acquisition  of  land 
as  a  site  for  the  Commercial  Museums  and  for  the  Free 
Museum  of  Science  and  Art.  Commencement  day  of  June, 
1894,  was  with  him  the  close  of  an  old  era  and  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  one.  The  University  chapter  was  closed ;  the 
civic  chapter  was  opening.  The  struggle  now  was  not 
merely  for  a  corporation  of  the  University  type,  devoted  to 
education,  but  an  institution  for  the  benefit  of  the  entire 
community;  the  world  of  industry,  science,  and  art.  He 
desired  to  found  an  institution  devoted  to  science  and  art, 
such  as  now,  after  many  centuries,  may  be  seen  in  any  one 
of  the  great  capitals  of  Europe. 

470 


JEt.  51]     INCIDENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

The  difficulties  were  enormous.  In  Europe  great  museums 
have  the  support  of  the  government ;  they  are  part  of  the 
civil  organization  of  society.  Their  expenses  are  a  fixed 
element  in  the  budget  of  the  country,  and  they  are  looked 
upon  as  a  permanent  organization.  With  the  exception  of 
the  Smithsonian  Museum,  at  Washington,  and  one  or  two 
other  museums,  no  institution  exists  in  this  country  strictly 
analogous  to  the  European  type.  Dr.  Pepper  had  to  create 
agencies,  and  even  public  sentiment,  for  the  support  of  such 
an  institution  as  he  had  planned.  His  procedure,  in  brief, 
was,  first,  to  secure  the  potential  support  of  private  individ- 
uals, and  then  to  make  the  institution  a  part  of  the  munici- 
pal organization.  No  other  man  in  Philadelphia  could  have 
carried  a  project  of  this  kind  through.  He  was  fortunate  in 
having  the  sympathy  and  support  of  a  few  men  and  women 
of  great  ability  and  public  spirit. 

In  the  account  of  the  founding  of  University  Extension, 
the  Free  Public  Library,  the  Commercial  Museum,  and  the 
Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art,  it  is  shown  how  dependent 
Dr.  Pepper  was  upon  the  vitality  and  sagacity  of  his  asso- 
ciates. He  never  claimed  that  the  results  which  he  accom- 
plished were  due  wholly  to  his  own  efforts.  His  reports  as 
Provost  ot  the  University  are  replete  with  recognition  of  the 
services  of  his  colleagues.  The  same  recognition  abounds 
in  the  history  of  the  Museum,  His  peculiar  power  lay  in 
the  co-ordination  of  agencies ;  in  the  uniting  of  many  rivu- 
lets of  influence  into  one  mighty  stream.  He  was  naturally 
a  leader  of  men,  and  his  unselfishness  secured  their  fidelity. 
The  result  was  inevitable;  committees.  Councils,  Legisla- 
tures yielded  before  him  in  recognition  of  his  superior  insight 
as  to  the  best  method  of  promoting  the  general  welfare. 

His  domestic  life  was  filled  with  solicitude  and  affection 

471 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

for  his  family,  from  whom  his  ceaseless  toil  for  others  often 
isolated  him.  He  always  rose  early,  seldom  later  than  6.45 
o'clock.  He  wrote  his  most  important  letters  in  his  own 
hand ;  others  were  dictated  to  a  stenographer.  His  breakfast 
he  usually  took  in  his  office  while  in  Philadelphia,  but  when 
at  Newport,  Northeast  Harbor,  or  Bay  Head,  the  program 
of  work  was  modified  a  little,  and  he  breakfasted  with  his 
family.  Sometimes  he  would  read  a  few  pages  of  Lord 
Chesterfield  to  his  boys.  "  It  amuses  them,"  he  writes,  "  but 
it  requires  more  than  that  to  impart  grace  to  them."  After 
breakfast,  which  was  usually  at  eight  or  8.30,  the  stenographer 
returned  and  worked  with  him  for  three  hours;  then  there 
was  a  march  to  the  shore  with  the  boys  for  a  sea-bath. 
Dinner  was  served  at  halt-past  one,  after  which  he  took  a 
drive,  or  a  short  walk,  with  Mrs.  Pepper;  read  a  favorite 
author,  or,  all  too  frequently,  resumed  his  work  with  his 
stenographer.  After  eight  o'clock  he  was  alone,  and  usually 
worked  until  long  past  midnight.  From  this  program  there 
was  little  variation  through  the  summer  days.  What  varia- 
tion there  was  consisted  in  lengthening  the  hours  of  labor 
and  shortening  those  of  recreation. 

His  interest  in  the  progress  of  his  three  sons  was  patient 
and  incessant.  The  youngest,  Oliver  Hazard  Perry,  was 
more  with  his  father  than  the  two  elder  sons,  who  were 
much  of  the  time  at  school  or  in  the  University;  and  for 
Perry  he  felt  a  peculiar  affection.  The  boy  strongly  re- 
sembled his  father,  and  intimate  friends  of  the  family  will 
long  remember  delightful  glimpses  of  father  and  son,  insep- 
arable companions,  chatting  to  each  other  in  French  and 
planning  all  sorts  of  stupendous  enterprises.  Whenever 
Perry  was  sick  his  father  became  a  changed  man ;  then,  if 
ever,  it  was  inadvisable  to  press  him  or  be  over-solicitous  for 

472 


JEt.  51]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

mere  affairs.  In  August,  1894,  Perry  was  taken  suddenly 
sick.  "  I  was  utterly  upset  for  forty-eight  hours,"  writes  Dr. 
Pepper.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  no  one  understood  his 
father  quite  as  Perry  did. 

The  last  three  years  of  Dr.  Pepper's  life  were  years  of 
sleeplessness,  pain,  and  intensity  of  application.  Not  seldom 
does  he  speak  of  having  no  sleep  for  thirty-six  hours  or  of 
working  from  fourteen  to  nineteen  hours  consecutively.  He 
was  much  given  to  reading,  though  one  wonders  when  he 
found  time  for  it.  Among  his  favorite  books  were  the  great 
confessions,  as  those  ot  Aurelius,  and  the  lesser  ones,  such 
as  Sterne's  bit  of  autobiography. 

"  I  am  glad  to  have  Seneca,"  he  writes.  "  I  do  not  find  any 
fault  with  him  for  the  inconsistencies  between  his  conduct  and  his 
creed.  He  was  human  and  not  a  hypocrite.  He  tried  to  see 
things  and  men  and  women  as  they  are.  His  ideal,  his  spirit,  his 
code  were  fine ;  but  he  knew  his  weakness,  and  did  not  always 
keep  out  of  temptation.  It  is  easy  to  throw  over  a  philosophy 
which  did  so  little  for  the  philosopher,  but  I  care  foi'  it  and  get 
good  out  of  it.  I  think  he  was  striving  onward  and  upward  to 
the  end."  ^ 

Men  of  action  are  fond  of  epigrams  and  of  epigram- 
matic philosophy. 

"  I  awoke  at  dawn  and  read  Aurelius,"  he  writes.  "  I  am 
stronger  and  calmer  than  I  ventured  to  hope  that  I  should  be  for  a 
long  time,  and  I  begin  to  have  that  clear  inner  light  as  to  the  future 
which  is  always  common  to  me  when  assured  of  a  successful  and 
right  course  of  action.  I  shall  never  give  myself  one  moment's 
worry  again  about  slanderous  criticism  or  treacherous  opposition. 
I    know   I   have   the    strength  to  carry    through  a  second    life  of 


'  MS.,  August  21,  1894. 

473 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1894 

large  labor  and  achievement.      I   feel    the  fire    and    ambition    of 
youth  coming  back."  ' 

This  was  written  from  Newport  at  a  time  when  he  was 
resting  and  recuperating.  But  these  moments  of  calm  and 
physical  rest  were  few ;  a  week  later  he  is  "  impatient  to  get 
to  town,"  in  order  to  lay  hold  more  effectively  on  the  execu- 
tion of  his  plans. 

The  great  struggle  was  for  the  land  on  which  to  erect  the 
Museum  building.  The  question  may  here  be  asked,  Why 
this  haste  and  concentration  of  activity?  Why  not  work 
more  slowly  and  win  the  battle?  The  answer  is,  There  was 
no  other  course  to  pursue.  If  the  land  was  to  be  obtained 
from  Councils,  it  must  be  obtained  at  once.  The  opposition 
to  Dr.  Pepper  was  bitter,  persistent,  bold,  and  powerful. 
Though  this  opposition  was  prolonged,  its  history  is  brief: 
it  failed,  but  its  merciless  activity  shortened  Dr.  Pepper's  life. 

While  he  was  exerting  himself  for  the  Museums  he  was 
laboring  with  equal  energy  to  secure  an  appropriation  in 
Councils  for  the  filtration  of  the  city's  water  supply.  Like 
a  good  politician,  he  had  faith  in  omnibus  bills,  and  in  order 
to  secure  the  enactment  of  his  own  measures  he  gave  his 
influence  to  the  furtherance  of  the  measures  of  others.  The 
close  of  the  year  1894  found  him  pressing  forward  a  group 
of  interests :  the  Museums,  the  Free  Library,  the  filtration 
plan,  and  the  reorganization  of  the  educational  system  of  the 
city.  The  financial  elements  necessary  to  the  passage  of 
these  measures  were  finally  embodied  in  what  was  called  the 
Loan  Bill,  a  public  measure  which,  there  is  no  doubt,  cost 
him  months,  perhaps  years,  of  life. 


MS.,  September  6,  1894. 

474 


JEr.  51]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

The  working  out  of  the  organization  both  of  the  Com- 
mercial Museums  and  of  the  Free  Museum  of  Science  and 
Art  involved  the  settlement  of  the  relations  of  both  to  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  Museum  of  Science  and 
Art  was  to  be  a  part  of  the  University  system  and  yet  have 
an  identity  all  its  own.  No  other  man  than  Dr.  Pepper 
could  have  secured  the  final  result:  co-ordination  with  the 
University  and  practical  independence  of  the  Museum.  But 
the  result  was  hard  to  attain. 

From  the  early  spring  of  1895  dates  the  marked  failure 
of  his  health.  His  system  never  again  readily  shook  off 
even  light  attacks  of  disease. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  March  his  beloved  mother  passed 
away.  "  She  has  gone  to  sleep,"  he  wrote ;  "  quietly  and 
peacefully."  His  affection  for  her  was  one  of  the  deep  pas- 
sions of  his  life.  She  lived  to  witness  his  triumphs  and  to 
see  the  large  place  which  he  filled  in  the  world.  In  the  first 
sketch  of  his  life  which  he  had  written,  he  referred  to  her,^ 
and  the  intervening  quarter  of  a  century  had  only  intensified 
the  tender  feelings  which  existed  between  them.  Seldom 
does  one  see  such  a  mother  and  such  a  son.  "  I  could  not 
sleep  very  well,"  he  wrote  on  the  day  following  her  death, 
"  but  I  am  all  right  to-day.  I  would  not  call  her  back 
could  I  do  so.  It  was  a  beautiful  end  of  a  singularly  lovely 
life." 

As  the  various  campaigns  progressed,  he  became  con- 
vinced that  the  bill  for  the  reorganization  of  the  Board  of 
Education  in  Philadelphia,  which  the  Civic  Club  was  actively 
pushing  through  the  Legislature,  was  doomed.  The  Civic 
Club  had  taken  it  up  with  but  little  hope  of  success,  for  the 

^  See  p.  24. 

475 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

purpose  of  educating  the  people  to  the  faults  of  the  present 
system  and  to  keep  the  necessity  for  reorganization  before 
the  people.  Its  president,  Mrs.  Stevenson,  had  enlisted  Dr. 
Pepper's  interest  in  the  movement,  and  his  powerful  influ- 
ence had  been  thrown  on  its  side.  Introduced  by  Senator 
Porter,  who  had  agreed  to  substitute  the  Civic  Club  Com- 
promise Bill  for  one  which  he  himself  had  planned  to  in- 
troduce, it  passed  the  Senate,  and  went  through  a  first  read- 
ing in  the  House,  where,  by  an  unworthy  trick  of  the 
Speaker,  it  was  referred,  not  to  the  Committee  on  Education, 
which  was  friendly  and  the  legitimate  committee,  but  to  the 
Committee  of  Municipal  Corporations,  with  an  obvious  de- 
sire to  pigeon-hole  it  until  the  close  of  the  session.  From 
that  moment  it  was  a  lost  cause :  the  men  who  had  been 
eager  to  support  the  measure  allowed  it  to  fall  to  the  ground.^ 

His  physical  collapses  from  this  time  set  in  frequently, 
and  he  discovered  that  he  could  no  longer  count  on  his 
capacity  to  work ;  but,  though  confined  to  his  bed  at  times, 
he  did  not  for  long  cease  working ;  innumerable  letters  and 
telegrams  were  sent  and  received,  and  the  ponderous  ma- 
chinery of  his  numerous  campaigns  was  kept  in  motion. 
His  spells  of  sickness  were  shaken  off  by  will  power  rather 
than  by  medicine  or  rest.  He  refused  to  be  sick,  though  his 
work  was  enough  to  break  down  any  man.  Even  when  for 
a  day  he  was  confined  to  his  bed,  he  maintained  his  hope 
and  serenity,  and  gently  rebuked  an  anxious  friend :  "  Never 
allow  one  moment  to  be  spoiled  by  anxiety.  What  is  the 
use  of  our  hard-won  upland  of  clear  sky  and  pure  air  if  we 
let  fogs  obscure"?" 

An  interesting  illustration  of   his  attention  to  details  is 

'  May,  1895. 

476 


JEt.  52]    INCIDENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

afforded  in  connection  with  the  projected  ordinance  for  the 
acquisition  of  the  lands  for  the  Museums.  He  went  care- 
fully over  all  the  relevant  pamphlet  laws,  and  practically 
wrote  the  entire  ordinance  himself,  every  word  of  which  was 
most  carefully  weighed.^  This  attention  to  details  was  his 
habit  in  all  matters.  When  news  reached  him  of  Mr.  Charles 
C.  Harrison's  munificent  gift  of  half  a  million  to  the  Uni- 
versity, he  wrote :  "  This  splendid  gift  would  of  itself  repav 
me  for  all  the  annoyance  I  have  gone  through  for  years." 
He  felt  that  the  great  work  to  which  he  had  given  years  of 
life  was  now  made  yet  more  secure. 

At  this  time  he  was  receiving  encouraging  news  in  other 
directions:  the  appropriation  for  the  Museums  from  City 
Councils  was  assured,  and  it  seemed  for  a  time  that  the  bill 
for  the  reorganization  and  improvement  at  Blockley — the 
separation  of  the  paupers  and  the  insane,  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  place  as  a  great  municipal  hospital — would 
pass.  For  the  regeneration  of  Blockley  he  had  been  labor- 
ing over  thirty  years,  and  the  end  seemed  yet  a  great  way 
off;  indeed  it  did  not  come  in  his  lifetime.  Scattered  through 
his  papers  were  bundles  of  reports  pertaining  to  Blockley, 
from  the  time  when  he  was  there  at  the  opening  of  his  prac- 
tice down  almost  to  the  last  of  his  life.  That  great  piece  of 
municipal  reform  remains  yet  to  be  carried  out. 

The  wheels  of  his  activity  were  turning  faster  and  faster. 

"  I  lecture  from  half-past  five  till  half-past  six,"  he  writes,  "  and 
then  shall  have  to  go  twenty  miles  to  a  consultation.  I  am  helpless 
at  this  moment  and  have  six  hours  of  dictation  ahead  of  me  and 
strength  for  only  tu^o  or  three  of  them.  I  lectured  with  tremendous 
energy  to-day ;   it   takes   an   awful    lot   out   of  me.      The   crisis   of 


*  MS.,  September  15,  1895. 

477 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1895 

organization  once  passed  in  the  matter  of  the  Free  Museum,  the 
Pepper  Laboratory  of  Hygiene,  the  City  Museums,  and  the  Uni- 
versity Museum,  Heaven  grant  that  some  leisure  comes  or  I  must 
resign  my  professorship.  I  could  not  live  as  I  have  lived  since  my 
return  in  September ;  not  one  moment  have  I  been  free  from  the 
lash."  1 

On  the  heels  of  this  activity  came  revulsion  next  day. 

"  I  became  so  unwell  yesterday  that  I  had  to  cancel  my  engage- 
ments and  went  to  bed  early  in  the  evening.  I  am  a  little  stronger 
to-day,  but  am  very  weary.  My  work  will  not  let  up  one  instant. 
I  shall  go  to  bed  this  evening  as  soon  as  I  return  from  the  country, 
for  I  must  go  for  consultation.  What  is  the  matter  I  do  not  know ; 
as  soon  as  I  rest  I  feel  all  right.  As  soon  as  I  get  tired  I  seem  to 
get  so  weary  I  cannot  rouse  myself.  Luckily,  no  lecture  for  ten 
days.  I  shall  watch  every  pain,  and  will  not  and  must  not  break 
down." 

It  was  just  at  this  time  that  he  was  so  unfortunate  as 
to  enter  upon  the  contest  for  election  as  vice-president  of 
the  Philosophical  Society, — unquestionably  one  of  the  mis- 
takes of  his  life.  The  contest  was  very  bitter,  and  came  at 
a  most  unhappy  moment  for  the  success  of  many  of  the 
large  enterprises  which  he  had  on  hand.  These  were  in  a 
critical  stage,  particularly  the  appropriation  bill  pending  in 
the  Legislature  and  the  ordinance  for  the  land-grant  to  the 
Museums.  His  candidacy  for  the  second  office  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Society  alienated  some  of  his  friends  and  did  not 
strengthen  his  position  in  the  city.  No  comment  on  this 
disastrous  struggle — disastrous  for  his  health,  although  he  won 
the  office — can  be  stronger  than  his  own.  "  To-morrow  at 
this  time,"  he  writes,  "  it  will  be  over,  and  the  immediate 


'  MS.,  December  30,  1895. 

478 


JEt.  52]    INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

effects  of  one  of  the  worst  blunders  I  have  made  in  a  life 
full  of  blunders  will  pass  into  their  second  chapter."^  But 
his  election  he  viewed,  after  all,  as  a  personal  triumph.  This 
vice-presidency  was  the  only  office  for  which  he  ever  made 
what  in  politics  is  called  "  a  fight." 

The  new  year,  1896,  found  him  busier  and  physically 
weaker  than  ever.  Day  and  night  were  given  to  long  con- 
ferences with  Senators,  Councilmen,  men  and  women  of 
wealth  and  influence  in  private  station,  and  all  for  the  pur- 
pose of  advancing  the  cause  of  the  Free  Library,  Museums, 
public  education,  the  University,  the  sanitary  condition  of 
the  city,  and  the  National  University  at  Washington.  Every 
letter  in  which  he  speaks  of  himself,  written  at  this  time, 
contains  some  expression  of  weariness,  some  confession  of 
overwork.  "  I  am  so  behindhand,"  he  writes,  "  I  have  abso- 
lutely no  peace  in  hfe  for  a  single  instant."  The  number  of 
committee  meetings,  Faculty  meetings,  trustee  meetings,  and 
interviews  which  he  planned  and  carried  through  at  this  time 
is  appalling.  One  of  his  plans  was  to  secure  Bartram's 
Garden  either  for  the  Department  of  Archaeology  or  for  the 
Commercial  Museums.  He  was  anxious,  with  Dr.  Wilson, 
to  start  a  botanical  garden  somewhat  after  the  character  of 
the  Garden  of  Plants  in  Paris,  and  Bartram's  Garden  would 
make  a  beginning.  He  failed  to  obtain  Bartram's  through 
what  he  records  as  the  treachery  of  one  upon  whom  he  had 
relied.  The  loss  he  did  not,  however,  consider  irretrievable, 
for  a  better  public  garden  could  be  developed  on  the  site  of 
the  land  which  he  was  securing  for  the  Museums. 

He  was  not  always  successful  in  his  appeals.  "Are  there 
not  days  when  it  all  seems  too  hard?"  he  asks,     "This  is 


^  MS.,  January  2,  1896. 

479 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

one  with  me.  I  have  just  spent  an  hour  and  a  half  pleading 
for  money  as  a  man  pleads  for  his  life,  and  not  a  penny  have 
I  got.  I  am  unable  to  get  through  my  medical  work,  and 
now  I  am  tired,  nervous,  and  cross,  and  must  begin  a  long 
evening's  work  which  must  be  done."  Then  came  a  col- 
lapse. "  I  have  no  idea  what  happened,"  he  writes ;  "  I  may 
have  taken  cold  or  I  may  have  been  poisoned.  I  am  in  bed 
comfortable,  but  coughing  much  more.  No  possible  good 
in  a  consultation.  I  know  more,  in  my  little  finger — like 
Paracelsus  (about  my  own  case)  I — than  the  whole  Faculty 
in  their  united  wisdom."  Although  thus  prostrated,  he  adds, 
"  I  expect  to  be  at  the  committee  meeting  to-morrow  at  half- 
past  twelve."^  This  collapse  marked  a  turning-point.  Up 
to  this  time  he  had  been  cheerful  and  had  regained  much  of 
his  old-time  hopefulness;  he  seemed  to  have  taken  a  new 
grip  on  life. 

Never  had  he  been  more  powerful  or  more  important  in 
the  community,  or,  putting  it  in  a  better  way,  never  before 
had  the  community  so  fully  recognized  his  greatness  and 
importance.  His  earnestness  was  surpassing.  Just  at  this 
time  came  the  Philosophical  Society  campaign,  which  broke 
him  up  again,  and  he  did  not  have  sufficient  vitality  to  pull 
himself  together.  From  this  time  his  physical  condition  oc- 
cupied more  and  more  of  his  thoughts.  The  most  serious 
sign  of  the  radical  change  was  his  nervousness,  which  became 
frequently  intolerable ;  a  most  serious  sign  of  physical  decay 
in  him,  for  no  man  ever  had  more  self-control  than  he  in  his 
normal  condition. 

"  Not  so  fine  as  I  fancied,"  he  wrote  a  few  days  later.  "  I 
started  out,  but  was  too  weak,  and  came  back  and  slept  from 


^  MS.,  January  i4(?),  1896. 

480 


JEr.  52]    INCIDENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

eight  last  evening  until  half-past  seven  this  morning,  and  I 
shall  try  it  again  to-night.  But  I  must  go  down  at  four  to 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  Free  Library."  He  had  cheering 
news  this  day,  that  the  Department  of  State  at  Washington 
would  extend  its  support  to  the  Commercial  Museums  by 
directing  the  American  consuls  to  make  special  reports  to  it 
of  the  condition  of  trade  in  the  different  parts  of  the  world. 
Another  encouragement  was  the  attitude  of  several  of  the 
wealthiest  citizens  of  Philadelphia  towards  the  Free  Museum 
of  Science  and  Art, — notably  Mr.  P.  A.  B.  Widener  and 
Mr.  William  L.  Elkins.  There  seemed  a  prospect  now  that 
they  would  erect  halls  bearing  the  names  of  their  donors. 
In  spite  of  nature's  warnings,  he  continued  his  activities. 

"  I  was  late  in  rising,"  he  records.  "  All  the  world  was  here 
and  I  have  struggled  to  clear  the  deck.  I  shall  go  to  New  York. 
It  will  be  a  busy  day,  but  I  am  strong  enough.  I  have  learned  at 
last  the  lesson  I  should  have  learned  a  year  ago.  I  am  overworked 
and  can  do  nothing  well,  and,  worse  than  that,  have  not  one 
moment  or  one  grain  of  energy  for  true  living,  friendship,  science, 
etc.  I  must  consider  very  carefully  what  to  resign,  for  I  am 
resolved  to  cut  loose  from  some  of  my  positions,  not  hastily,  but 
deliberately  and  at  good  moments.  This  breakdown  has  been 
coming  steadily  closer  and  closer  all  the  fall.  I  have  managed  to 
hold  on,  and  am  getting  better,  but  the  game  is  too  risky." 

This  was  written  at  the  close  of  January,  1896,^  and  re- 
corded what  with  him  was  a  matter  not  of  the  will  but  of 
compulsion. 

Arrears  of  work  now  began  accumulating,  "  mountains  of 
them,"  as  he  expressed  it.  The  Museum  work  advanced  so 
finely  that  the  committee  was  consulting  architects,  engineers, 

*  January  29. 
31  481 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

and  landscape  gardeners.  Every  detail  passed  through  his 
hands.  His  decision  to  resign  from  the  many  presidencies 
which  he  held  was  made  too  late,  but  he  acted  upon  it  and 
got  some  relief.  He  began  to  realize  that  the  time  was 
short;  that  he  must  concentrate  his  energies  upon  the  largest 
enterprises  in  hand.  To  an  observer  there  was  no  change 
whatever  in  his  outward  life,  save  that  he  was  more  frequently 
ill  in  bed.  His  office  was  crowded  with  patients ;  consulta- 
tions multiplied  upon  him ;  messenger  boys  were  running  to 
and  fro  from  his  office  as  usual,  and  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
secretaries,  members  of  the  Faculty,  trustees,  and  politicians 
kept  on  quite  in  the  old  way. 

But  he  was  changed ;  the  work  was  beginning  to  pall  upon 
him,  and  the  exactions  of  the  day  were  becoming  brutal. 
His  capacity  to  influence  men  was  transcendent  and,  as  events 
proved,  complete.  He  understood  exactly  what  to  do.  The 
whole  thing,  after  all,  was  a  matter  of  courage  and  physical 
endurance.  Day  after  day  he  was  now  recording  "nearer 
dead  than  alive ;  worn  out,  arrears  of  work  hopeless.  I  was 
so  anxious  about  Councils  I  could  not  sleep,  and  was  off 
early  this  morning  and  spent  an  hour  with  [  *  *  *  ]  before 
he  left  bed ;  ^  and  all  this  to  influence  the  master  politicians." 

Signs  of  encouragement  caused  him  to  recuperate  quickly, 
but  discouragement,  however  trifling,  wrought  disastrous 
effects  upon  his  nervous  system.  One  day  he  records  himself 
in  splendid  health,  but  the  next  is  "a  beastly  hard  day  with 
little  result  and  intolerable  weariness."  His  moves  for  the 
advancement  of  the  National  University  were  repeatedly 
checkmated  by  the  painful  hostility  of  some  of  the  old 
universities  along  the  Atlantic   seaboard.      Behind  all  this 


MS.,  February  28,  1896. 

482 


Mt.  52]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

opposition  was  their  secret  jealousy  and  fear  that  a  national 
university  would  injure  them.  He  fully  realized  the  state 
of  affairs,  but  bravely  and  persistently  kept  on. 

As  time  passed  he  gradually  dropped  his  efforts  with  men 
of  little  influence,  and  concentrated  himself  upon  the  leaders, 
who  he  found  were,  after  all,  the  masters  of  the  situation. 
*'I  suppose  I  did  too  much,"  he  writes.  "A  bad  night; 
twelve  hours  of  restless,  feverish  waste  of  time."  He  now 
often  had  to  send  away  his  stenographer,  a  sure  sign  of  col- 
lapse. The  last  day  of  April  he  mentions  as  "  one  of  the 
strongest  days  "  of  his  life.  "  I  gathered  up  the  Faculty  into 
one  hand  last  evening  and  swung  it  as  a  stick."  But  in  the 
morning  he  records :  "  I  had  another  such  an  awful  night ; 
it  takes  life  out  of  one."  From  this  time  he  rarely  got  more 
than  three  or  four  hours'  sleep  out  of  the  twenty-four. 

With  the  coming  of  the  early  March  days  he  and  those 
near  to  him  began  to  face  the  possibility  of  his  death.  During 
the  preceding  winter  he  had  several  attacks  of  angina  pec- 
toris ;  and,  although  he  kept  this  a  secret,  after  the  last  of 
these,  which  was  in  February,  he  was  convinced  that  the  end 
was  not  far  distant.  He  began  to  confide  his  wishes  for  the 
future  to  his  closest  associates,  and  gave  them  instructions  in 
preparation  for  the  worst.  He  promised  to  shape  things  so 
that  the  burden  should  not  be  too  heavy  for  them  to  carry. 
He  knew  now  that  he  should  never  live  to  see  the  fulfilment 
of  his  great  plans.  He  made  no  change,  however,  in  his 
outward  life ;  went  to  consultations  at  untimely  hours  with- 
out a  pause ;  attended  to  his  medical  practice,  which  was 
ever  increasing,  and  bravely  kept  in  touch  with  the  vast 
army  of  men  and  women  with  whom  he  was  carrying  on 
the  great  work.  Excepting  his  habitual  attention  to  his 
medical  practice,  he  did  no  more  scientific  work,  and  yet  to 

483 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

do  such  work  had  been  the  dream  of  his  hfe.  He  was  in  a 
state  of  chronic  weariness ;  yet  he  continued  to  give  whole 
nights  to  the  dictation  of  letters,  telegrams,  and  reports,  and 
attend  the  endless  round  of  conferences  and  committee  meet- 
ings much  as  usual. 

Not  a  week  passed  that  he  did  not  acquire,  by  gift  or 
purchase,  some  new  collection  of  treasures  for  the  Museum 
of  Science  and  Art.  Its  collections  were  now  loudly  de- 
manding an  adequate  treasure-house,  and  he  took  deep  joy 
in  the  consciousness  that  this  was  provided  for,  A  gleam  of 
success  affected  him  like  a  tonic,  but  a  shadow  of  discourage- 
ment pulled  him  down.  The  innumerable  meetings  over 
which  he  presided  were  a  drag  upon  him,  but  he  felt  that  he 
could  not  let  them  pass  into  other  hands ;  the  time  for  this 
had  not  yet  come.  He  alone  must  co-ordinate  the  educa- 
tional work  at  hand.  His  inability  to  sleep  remained  un- 
changed. "  I  had  a  little  sleep  last  night,"  he  writes  towards 
the  last  of  May,  "  but  I  am  astonished  at  my  own  strength. 
I  am  living  an  impossible  life.  The  high  purpose  to  which 
all  these  efforts  are  pledged  must  be  the  sustaining  force.  I 
am  seeking  so  many  favors  from  so  many  different  people  in 
so  many  different  directions,  which  is  all  very  complicated, 
I  feel  like  a  juggler  with  many  plates  spinning,  and  all  must 
be  touched  at  the  right  spot." 

A  glimpse  at  his  professional  activity  at  this  time  is  afforded 
by  one  little  line  in  a  letter  written  the  last  of  May :  "  The 
devil  has  broken  loose  with  me  in  medicine,  my  house  is 
packed  with  people,  and  I  have  six  consultations  out  of 
town  in  different  directions  between  this  and  to-morrow 
morning."  *     On  this  May  day  he  records  that  his  work  had 


'  MS.,  May  30  (?),  1896. 

484 


IEt.  52]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

been  so  pressing  that  he  had  not  been  in  bed  for  three  nights. 
Another  collapse  followed,  and  recovery  was  a  hard  fight. 
"  I  could  not  go  to  Maryland,"  he  writes  on  the  twelfth  of 
June,  "the  pain  was  too  great  to  venture  it."  But  he  also 
records  that  the  results  of  work  were  coming  in,  and  written 
pledges  of  support  in  the  Legislature  and  Councils  for  the 
Museums.     This  to  him  was  recompense  for  ceaseless  toil. 

In  July  he  started  with  his  family  on  a  long  journey 
through  the  Northwest.  He  got  away  barely  in  time,  for 
on  reaching  Minneapolis,  July  25,  he  wrote  to  a  colleague 
that  he  had  had  worrying  symptoms  since  he  started,  due  to 
the  hurry  and  drive  of  the  preceding  month.  His  health 
was  from  this  time  ever  more  the  subject  of  his  thought. 
He  noticed  that  he  could  scarcely  write  or  use  his  hands  or 
feet  in  a  regular  way ;  a  condition  which  he  attributed  to  the 
effect  of  the  long  and  rapid  journey  which  he  had  taken 
when  in  an  exhausted  state.  He  was  sure  that  it  would  pass 
off  soon ;  but  it  did  not. 

All  through  the  journey  in  Southern  Dakota  he  was 
drowsy  and  suffered  great  pain.  When  he  reached  Agassiz, 
in  British  Columbia,  on  the  thirtieth  of  July,  he  thought 
himself  all  right  again,  but  he  confessed  that  he  had  a 
"queer  scare."  "It  was  only  rheumatism  of  the  nerves," 
he  notes,  "but  it  affected  my  tongue,  right  arm,  and  right 
leg.  I  have  been  very  good  and  careful," — carefulness  which 
his  surroundings  for  the  moment  compelled  him  to  observe. 

When  he  reached  Vancouver,  on  the  thirty-first,  he  con- 
fessed that  it  was  the  first  day  he  had  had  the  energy  to 
think  or  move,  but  he  had  been  feeling  acutely. 

"  Is  it  not  strange,"  he  inquires,  "  how  force  within  as  well  as 
without  assumes  different  forms  so  readily  and  so  swiftly  ?     I  have 

48s 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

been  battling  all  the  week  with  a  serious  threatening.  I  felt  that, 
of  course,  I  should  come  out  all  right.  I  shall  never  know  whether 
it  has  been  good  or  bad  for  me  to  be  flying  through  space  now  in 
this  fashion.  I  felt  better  yesterday  for  the  first  time,  and  this 
morning,  at  half-past  three,  I  awakened  with  a  jerk,  and  was  hard 
at  it  upon  fifty  things  :  Museum  matters.  Museum  finances,  patients, 
jotting  down  what  must  be  done ;  and  I  have  been  in  the  little 
dining-room  of  the  car,  where  I  sleep,  since  four  o'clock,  writing 
by  a  big  window,  which  looks  on  the  Pacific,  and  with  such  a  cold, 
foggy  sun  struggling  to  get  through.  I  feel  as  if  I  could  not  stay 
away  from  Philadelphia  a  single  day." 

He  was  fretting  to  know  whether  there  had  been  a  special 
jneeting  of  Councils,  whether  any  important  communica- 
tions had  come  from  any  people,  and  what  progress  all  his 
enterprises  were  making:  for  the  weak  state  of  his  health 
had  compelled  him  to  leave  them  all,  for  a  time.  His 
greatest  desire  was  to  learn  what  bids  for  the  new  Museum 
building  had  come  in.  It  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  satisfy 
him  until  the  permanent  structure  was  rising  in  the  air. 
This  once  started,  he  felt  that  all  would  be  secure.  When 
he  reached  San  Francisco,  on  the  fifth  of  August,  he  thought 
himself  better  and  stronger,  but  confessed  that  he  was  far 
from  being  in  fine  condition.  He  cancelled  all  the  trips  he 
had  planned,  and  determined  to  keep  quiet  and  go  on  regular 
training  and  regimen ;  but  he  adds : 

*'  I  have  masses  of  writing,  fifty  or  sixty  letters  yesterday  and 
to-day,  and  lectures  and  addresses,  so  I  shall  be  busy  enough.  It 
is  the  old  story  :  I  awaken  at  five  or  5.30,  and  must  get  up  and  be 
at  it.     You  cannot  throw  off  rooted  habits  so  quickly." 

On  the  third  of  August,  when  "thirty  miles  from  San 
Francisco,"  he  notes  the  excessive  heat  : 

486 


JEt.  52]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

"  The  last  days  are  hard  ones.  The  heat  trying,  and  travelling 
rather  exciting  and  fatiguing.  Mrs.  Pepper  is  tired  and  suffering, 
but  it  is  over,  and  she  will  rest  quietly  for  six  weeks  in  this  dry, 
bracing  air.  I  hope  for  the  best.  I  am  almost  well,  and  able  to 
write  more  freely  ;  I  can  walk  much  better.  It  was  near  being  a 
bad  business  :  rheumatism  settling  on  a  number  of  exhausted  nerves. 

"  It  has  taught  me  a  good  deal.  So  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  time 
is  not  favorable  for  pushing  ahead  with  any  big  work.  I  read  that 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  have  made  a  practical  failure  of  their 
new  issue  of  three  and  a  half  per  cent,  municipal  bonds.  I  hope 
Warwick  will  go  very  cautiously.  Even  if  he  could  get  a  majority 
of  Councils,  it  seems  risky  to  advertise  a  loan." 

Better  for  him  had  he  taken  complete  rest,  for  the  sixth 
in  San  Francisco  he  records  that  he  had  not  been  able  to 
sign  his  name  for  five  days.  His  tongue  had  been  so  affected 
that  there  were  many  words  he  could  not  pronounce. 

"  I  could  not  raise  my  right  toe  over  a  pipe-stem  on  the  floor," 
he  said,  "  but  had  to  drag  it  along.  I  felt  that  it  was  not  paralysis, 
but  a  severe  attack  of  inflammation  on  separate  nerves,  because  I 
could  trace  them  out  by  the  exquisite  tenderness  along  their  lines. 
It  has  proved  so,  and  to-day  I  am  vastly  better.  I  have  kept  in- 
doors, kept  warm,  and  eaten  most  carefully." 

His  sons  accompanied  him  on  his  trip,  and  on  the  sixth 
of  August  went  off  to  the  Yosemite  by  themselves  for  a 
ten  days'  jaunt.  He  confessed  on  the  eighth  that  the  en- 
forced quiet  was  good  for  him  and  that  he  had  slept  nine 
hours  the  night  before  for  the  first  time  in  months.  A 
feeling  of  quiet  came  over  him.  Rest  brought  back  his 
hopes  and  faith.  He  saw  that  all  his  large  enterprises  were 
going  on  well.  The  past  year  was  now  sufficiently  in  the 
perspective  for  him  to  realize  how  tremendous   had   been 

487 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

its  strain  upon  him,  and  he  wondered  how  he  had  gotten 
through  it.^ 

He  was  keenly  alive  to  his  surroundings,  and  notes  in  one 
town,  of  not  quite  three  thousand  souls,  in  which  he  passed 
a  few  hours,  "that  there  were  quite  a  number  of  thirty, 
forty,  and  fifty  million  dollar  fortunes ;"  and  he  thought  of 
what  he  could  do.  He  found  time  to  do  missionary  work 
which  he  thought  would  be  helpful  at  Washington  and 
abroad  even  if  it  did  not  bring  money  directly  to  the  enter- 
prises in  which  he  was  engaged. 

On  the  tenth  of  August  he  reached  Pleasanton,  the  home 
of  Mrs.  Hearst.  The  Hacienda  he  described  as  an  embodi- 
ment of  one  of  the  plans  which  had  been  made  for  the 
Museum  building;  a  long,  low  house,  high  walls  and  red 
tiles,  the  enclosure  planted  with  flowers.  Rest  and  quiet 
were  making  him  uneasy,  and  he  was  again,  as  he  thought, 
"  ready  for  work."  So  long  as  he  could  read  and  study  and 
write  innumerable  letters, time  passed  tolerably;  but  inactivity 
made  him  fret.  Mrs.  Pepper  was  much  better,  and  Mrs. 
Hearst  was  most  kind,  thoughtful,  and  attentive.  Fate 
planned  that  he  should  come  again  to  this  spot.  Thence 
he  was  to  start  on  that  last  journey, — the  way  of  all  the 
earth. 

He  found  the  Hacienda  "  a  heavenly  place."  He  wrote  of 
the  stars  "gleaming  from  the  unspeakably  deep  blue  of  the 
heavens ;"  of  "  the  marvellous  play  of  light  and  shadows ;" 
of  the  hills  "standing  in  grand  outlines  against  the  sky." 
Here  he  lived  very  quietly  and  devoted  himself  to  Mrs. 
Pepper.  He  ate  truit,  "  as,"  he  said,  "  one  eats  bread  at 
home ;"  and  he  rejoiced  in  spotless  linen,  which,  he  added, 


'  MS.,  August  8,  1896. 


JEt.  52]     INCIDENTS   AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

"  would  keep  stiff  and  pure  for  six  months  instead  of  six 
fractions  of  a  second,  as  at  home."  Above  all,  he  slept 
soundly  and  felt  so  much  refreshed  and  strengthened  that  he 
was  obliged  to  confess  that,  though  it  had  been  a  great  effort 
for  him  to  come,  he  had  done  right.  So  exhausted  was  he 
when  he  left  Philadelphia  he  did  not  know  "  what  to  fear" 
as  to  his  condition. 

The  alarming  symptoms  of  paralysis  had  passed  off,  en- 
tirely confirming  his  own  diagnosis, — that  of  rheumatism  of 
exhausted  nerves.  But  he  was  indulging  m  a  respite  rather 
than  a  rest.  He  had  brought  with  him  "  two  bushels"  of 
old  correspondence  which  he  was  struggling  to  answer, — 
the  arrears  of  work  of  which  he  had  been  so  long  com- 
plaining. On  the  Pacific  coast  he  met  several  men  and 
women  of  great  wealth  who  were  interested  in  archaeology, 
and  whom  he  tried  to  bring  into  helpful  relations  with  the 
Museums.  In  this  he  was  somewhat  successful,  especially 
in  the  Department  of  American  Archasology.  In  this  mis- 
sionary work  he  was  greatly  aided  by  the  friendship  of 
President  Diaz  of  Mexico,  who  sent  him  letters  of  introduc- 
tion to  powerful  friends  in  California. 

As  he  regained  his  strength,  he  resumed  his  habitual 
attention  to  details  and  wrote  many  letters  concerning  the 
erection  of  the  Museum  building  now  in  progress.  Not  a 
detail  escaped  him.  Hostility  to  the  execution  of  his  great 
plans  had  continued  to  sharpen  during  his  absence,  and  he 
sought  in  every  way  in  his  power  to  disarm  it.  In  spite  of 
long  experience  with  certain  classes  of  men  in  Philadelphia, 
he  found  it  hard  to  believe  that  his  opponents  would  be 
foolish  enough  to  meddle  with  his  plans  when  such  splendid 
results  as  they  embodied  were  imminent.  But  they  con- 
tinued to  oppose  in  spite  of  the  grand  prospect. 

489 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1896 

Though  he  was  in  one  of  the  loveliest  spots  on  the  globe, 
amidst  most  beautiful  trees  and  flowers  and  near  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  under  a  California  sky,  all  wonderfully  fine,  he 
became  restless,  and  fell  to  sleeping  badly  and  to  worrying 
about  matters  at  home. 

Old  habits  were  tyrannical,  and  he  could  not  take  enjoy- 
ment and  rest  like  other  people.  Even  the  large,  free  life 
of  the  Hacienda  seemed  to  him  an  imprisonment;  his 
thoughts  were  in  the  East.  He  was  planning  the  winter's 
campaign. 

"  I  am  scared,"  he  writes,  August  30,  "  when  I  think  what  I 
have  undertaken  for  this  winter.  The  old  theme  of  lectures ;  no 
power  yet  to  cut  down  my  practice,  for  money  must  be  earned,  lots 
of  it,  and  it  is  useless  to  expect  to  make  any  in  this  country,  with 
everything  so  upset  and  uncertain,  except  by  the  hardest  kind  of 
work.  I  have  an  important  address  in  Mexico  [the  Pan-American]  ; 
[the  work  at  the]  Philosophical  Society ;  a  campaign  of  social  enter- 
taining ;  an  address  before  the  Historical  Society ;  an  address  to  be 
given  at  the  opening  of  the  Agnew  wing  [at  the  Hospital]  ;  the 
Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art ;  the  Commercial  Museum ;  the 
Free  Library ;  and  the  Leas  offering  splendid  terms  for  a  work  on 
Practice.  I  have  been  making  too  many  bricks  with  very  little 
straw,  and  have  been  supplementing  with  the  fibres  of  poor  nerves." 

And  on  the  following  day : 

"  It  is  all  very  well  to  prate  of  contentment  and  pleasure ;  I  am 
debauched  by  affairs,  and  know  no  peace  except  in  the  midst  of  full 
activity." 

This  was  his  life  in  a  sentence. 

He  was  a  keen  observer  of  the  times  and  was  true  to  the 
political  faith  within  him.  The  Presidential  campaign  of 
1896  worried  him.     "If  only  Bryan  is  snowed  under  and 

490 


JEt.  53]    INCIDENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

confidence  is  restored,"  he  notes  September  4,  "so  that  busi- 
ness will  start  and  big  work  will  be  again  possible."^  He 
resolves  to  do  all  he  can  to  regain  strength ;  confesses  that 
he  cannot  sleep  much,  "  the  only  drawback,"  and  hopes  to 
sleep  more  the  coming  winter ;  a  wise  decision,  for,  as  he 
acknowledges,  he  had  not  averaged  five  hours'  sleep  a  day 
through  the  preceding  year. 

He  tried  to  interest  Li  Hung  Chang  in  the  Museums  and 
to  secure  through  him  a  grand  Chinese  exhibit;  but  the 
visit  of  the  distinguished  Oriental  brought  the  Museum 
nothing.  Dr.  Pepper's  activity  among  the  Pacific  coast 
people  on  behalf  of  the  Museums  was  only  moderately 
successful.  He  interviewed  everybody  who  had  the  least 
interest  in  archaeology,  and  secured  endless  promises  and  a 
few  fine  collections,  notably  Japanese,  Russian,  and  Alaskan, 
"but  the  people  promise  so  much,  and  how  little  the  results." 

Towards  the  close  of  October  he  had  another  attack  of 
angina  pectoris,  after  which  he  writes  that  he  did  not  sleep 
well  and  was  barely  fit  to  begin  a  hard  week.  He  was 
now  forced  to  acknowledge  what  inroads  on  his  vitality  the 
last  fifteen  years  of  ceaseless  work  had  made.  "I  did  it 
deliberately,  and  am  not  sorry,  but  I  must  pay  the  price." 
At  this  time  he  was  preparing  for  his  Mexican  trip  to  attend 
the  Medical  Congress,  which  his  failing  health  ought  to 
have  ruled  out,  but  he  felt  that  he  could  not  escape  it  "save 
at  a  loss  of  prestige  and  neglect  of  duty."  It  proved  a  great 
triumph  and  ovation,*  but  it  cost  him  months  of  life.  The 
address  for  the  Mexican  Congress  he  mostly  prepared  while 
in  California  and  on  the  way  home. 


'  MS.,  September  4,  189&.  *  See  pp.  123-125. 

491 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 


VI 

THE  CLOSING  YEARS 
1896-1898 

DURING  January  and  February,  1897,  he  passed 
through  another  season  of  change  for  the  worse, 
and  entered  upon  a  period  of  physical  depression, 
and  from  this  time  to  the  end  joyousness  was  more  and 
more  rare  with  him.  Life  worried,  yes,  irritated  him,  and 
the  lively  faith  which  for  so  many  years  had  sustained  him 
diminished.  Not  hope,  but  reverses  and  discouragement, 
lashed  him  into  activity.  As  a  friend  expressed  it,  "Life 
was  conquering  him  who  had  always  victoriously  fought 
it."  "The  days  go  by,"  he  wrote,  with  unconscious  pathos; 
"  I  march  as  hard  as  I  can,  but  seem  only  to  mark  time ; 
indeed,  I  scarcely  hold  my  own.  I  see  no  near  prospect 
of  any  change;  I  cannot  go  through  my  work  during 
the  day."^  At  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Bruneti^re  there  were 
speeches  in  French,  and  among  them  one  by  Dr.  Pepper. 
It  fell  below  his  standard,  and  it  annoyed  him,  not  because 
he  was  vain,  but  because  he  loved  to  do  the  real  thing 
and  do  it  in  the  best  manner.  He  fixed  the  blame  for 
misfortunes  of  this  kind  upon  "the  miserable  makeshift 
which  had  stood  him  instead  of  an  education."'  His 
standards  of  life  were  high ;  he  possessed  the  scholar's  soul 
and  knew  all  too  well  what  a  wretched  preparation  for  life 

'  MS.  -'  MS.  letter. 

492 


y?£T.  53]  THE    CLOSING    YEARS 

the  elementary  school  and  the  University  had  given  him. 
His  realization  of  the  cheat  that  had  been  put  upon  him 
was  through  life  a  potent  factor  in  his  labors  for  education. 
He  wished  the  younger  generation  to  have  a  better  chance 
than  had  come  to  him. 

The  Loan  Bill  was  now  on  the  carpet,  and  it  exhausted 
him :  it  was  his  evil  genius.  Scarcely  a  letter  written  or  a 
memorandum  made  by  him  from  this  time  to  the  end  fails 
to  speak  of  this  bill  and  his  labors  to  carry  it  through.  To 
secure  its  passage  he  undid  himself,  sparing  nothing.  "  I  am 
having  a  terrible  time,"  he  writes,  "with  work  and  worry 
and  loss  of  rest.  The  next  four  years  can  scarcely  be  as 
hard  as  the  last  four.  McKinley  has  all  the  odds  in  his 
favor."  And  Dr.  Pepper  interpreted  the  odds  as  in  his  favor 
also. 

In  April  he  went  to  Washington,^  and  persuaded  the 
President  to  come,  accompanied  by  his  Cabinet,  to  the 
opening  of  the  Commercial  Museums,  in  June.  This  was 
a  fine  stroke  and  contributed  to  the  great  success  of  the 
Commercial  Congress  with  which  the  Museums  were  inau- 
gurated.' The  President's  participation  in  this  event  was  a 
recognition  of  the  great  importance  of  the  Museums,  the 
final  organization  of  which  was  so  largely  the  work  of  Dr. 
Pepper.  During  the  night  following  the  completion  of  the 
arrangements  for  the  President's  visit  Dr.  Pepper  broke 
down.  "  I  had  the  worst  spell  of  pain,"  he  notes,  "  that  I 
have  ever  had,  as  I  walked  home  from  the  Manufacturers' 
Club;  I  shall  give  up  my  lecture  to-day."  He  was  greatly 
pleased  at  the  result  of  his  Washington  trip  and  the  consent 
of  the  President  and  the  Cabinet  to  be  present  on  the  nota- 


*  MS.,  April  18,  1897.  ^  See  pp.  417-422. 

493 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

ble  occasion  of  the  opening.  The  whole  thing  was  arranged 
privately  with  the  President  before  the  politicians  got  wind 
of  it.  It  was  truly  Dr.  Pepper's  affair.  He  records  his 
satisfaction  in  a  note  written  May  6,  but  adds: 

"  I  am  running  into  the  worst  forty-eight  hours — a  solid  block 
of  consultations  till  midnight,  with  a  lecture  thrown  in  ;  to-morrow 
the  Diplomatic  Board  [of  Ministers]  from  twelve  to  three ;  the 
question  of  a  site  for  the  Free  Library  at  half-past  four ;  dinner  to 
Geikie  at  six  ;  Philosophical  Society  meeting  from  eight  till  ?  I 
have  had  nine  hours'  sleep  in  seventy-two,  but  without  tea  or  cof- 
fee I  get  on  well."  ^ 

On  the  eighth  he  paid  the  price  for  this, — an  attack  on  his 
way  home  and  terrible  pain.  "  I  shall  come  out  all  right," 
he  notes,  "if  I  live  through  it."  He  indulged  in  another 
brief  intermission  from  work.  If  in  anything,  the  days  now 
differed  from  the  past  in  having  a  greater  number  of  com- 
mittee meetings,  conferences,  interviews,  and  more  rushing 
about. 

The  prospect  of  securing  the  appropriation  at  Harrisburg 
was  now  encouraging,  but  he  thought  the  whole  affair  "most 
difficult  and  delicate."  He  knew  that  he  was  playing  for  big 
stakes;  but  having  resolved  to  win,  he  hazarded  all.  He  had 
coolly  determined  to  sacrifice  even  his  life  for  the  success  of 
his  great  civic  enterprises. 

His  powers  of  persuasion  wrought  the  usual  result  when, 
about  this  time,  he  appeared  before  the  Finance  Committee 
of  Councils  to  urge  them  to  appropriate  fifteen  thousand 
dollars  to  entertain  the  foreign  delegates  to  the  Commercial 
Congress.     The  money  was  voted  unanimously.     This  was 

»  MS. 

494 


^T.  53]  THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

on  Monday.  On  Thursday  he  writes :  "  I  collapsed  at  eight 
this  evening;  have  slept  like  a  dormouse  on  the  sofa  in  my 
office,  and  am  so  tired  I  must  go  to  bed."  The  world  knew 
only  of  his  phenomenal  activity ;  nothing  of  his  physical 
collapses.  The  tragedy  was  behind  the  scenes.  All  these 
days  a  multitude  of  sick  and  impotent  people  crowded  in 
upon  him  and  literally  packed  his  office.  His  consulting 
practice  was  more  than  an  ordinary  man  could  attend  to  ;  in 
addition  was  the  active  direction  of  the  public  work  he  was 
doing.     The  wonder  was  that  he  could  stand  the  strain. 

The  arrangement  for  the  Commercial  Congress  and  the 
entertainment  of  the  delegates  was  most  elaborate.  It  in- 
cluded not  only  the  conduct  of  the  mere  business  of  the 
occasion,  but  the  entertainment  of  the  State  Legislature,  of 
the  Foreign  Ministers,  of  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  and 
of  the  ladies  of  the  Cabinet  and  the  Diplomatic  Corps  who 
were  to  accompany  President  McKinley.  Dr.  Pepper  drafted 
Philadelphia  society  in  honor  of  the  occasion,  and  it  re- 
sponded. The  social  side  was  gracefully  attended  to,  a 
function  which  he  was  peculiarly  enabled  to  carry  on  because 
of  his  social  position.  His  friends  refused  him  nothing  on 
this  occasion.  The  affair  turned  out  a  grand  success,  but  he 
paid  a  terrible  price  for  it.  Writing  from  Bay  Head,  on  the 
seventeenth  of  July,  he  says:  "I  came  here  last  night.  It 
has  been  a  bad  time  for  me,  but  I  feel  better  and  sleep.  I 
have  turned  a  comer.  Since  Wednesday  the  pain  has  been 
almost  constant  and  severe.  I  have  devised  a  diet  and  treat- 
ment which  seems  wonderfully  useful."  And  three  days 
later:  "It  is  the  first  day  in  two  months  without  acute  suf- 
fering. For  three  days  I  was  helpless,  then  I  made  an  im- 
portant discovery,  and  now  can  cure  such  cases." 

It  was  at  this  time   that   he  arranged  for  a  two  weeks' 

495 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

fishing  trip  to  Canada.  "Then  back  to  beg,  if  I  am  fit." 
His  sons  and  Senator  Edmunds  were  to  go  with  him.  This 
trip  proved  disastrous ;  it  worried  more  than  it  refreshed  him, 
a  result  which  he  anticipated,  and  he  did  everything  he  could 
to  beg  off  from  going.  Writing.  August  7,  from  Notre 
Dame  Dulacque,  he  says : 

"  It  is  too  rough,  and  there  is  too  much  exertion  and  exposure 
for  a  man  of  my  condition  ;  still,  I  have  gone  through  better  than 
I  expected.  What  to  do  for  the  next  six  weeks  I  have  no  idea, 
unless  I  gain  strength  so  as  to  be  able  to  raise  money.  I  feel  quite 
ready  now  to  resign  my  chair  at  the  University,  or  the  Presidency 
of  the  Free  Library,  or  both,  and  several  minor  things,  and  get  my- 
self more  free  and  independent." 

The  appropriation  bill  for  the  University  had  passed  the 
Legislature,  but  the  Governor  had  cut  down  the  items,  a 
matter  with  which  the  Museum  item  of  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars had  nothing  to  do.  The  amount  which  the  Museum 
secured  was,  as  he  put  it,  "a  mere  starter."  The  response  to 
his  appeal  from  all  over  the  State  had  been  instantaneous 
and  vigorous.  "I  have  never  felt  so  much  relieved,"  he 
notes,  "  from  any  one  legislative  action  as  fi-om  this.  What 
a  position  the  movement  would  have  occupied  before  the 
world  if  repudiated  by  the  State  !  "  ^ 

He  returned  to  Bay  Head,  and  on  the  eleventh  of  August 
attempted  to  resume  his  work,  but  made  a  lamentable  failure. 
The  Canadian  trip  had  undone  him.  He  had  stayed  too 
long  in  town,  and  he  felt  that  he  could  not  live  till  the  ap- 
propriation had  been  secured.  He  found  that  he  could  not 
sleep  at  Bay  Head,  and  was  conscious  that  something  must 

'  MS. 

496 


JEt.  53]  THE    CLOSING    YEARS 

be  done  for  his  relief  at  once.  He  returned  to  town,  sick 
and  suffering,  but  stronger  than  he  had  been  for  three  weeks. 
"  I  am  treating  myself  with  the  greatest  strictness,"  he  writes, 
"and  beginning  to  feel  a  little  encouragement  as  to  being 
able  to  get  through  the  coming  winter," — a  gloomy  prospect 
in  his  condition  of  exhaustion.  Throughout  the  long 
Museum  campaign  he  had  been  giving  hours  and  hours  to 
the  aid  and  direction  of  excavations  in  Babylon,  Italy,  and 
Egypt.  He  now  felt  the  necessity  of  concentrating  all  his 
work,  among  other  things  that  relating  to  excavations,  and 
he  favored  Egypt.  He  rallied  a  little,  or,  as  he  put  it, 
"turned  a  corner,"  and  resumed  his  activity.  The  return  to 
his  Spruce  Street  home  rejoiced  him.  "  How  good  it  is  to 
be  here  again,"  he  writes  on  the  thirteenth  of  August ;  "  I 
slept  last  night  from  quarter-past  eleven  till  half-past  five  this 
morning,  and  did  not  turn.  For  three  weeks  I  have  been 
pursued  with  insomnia.  I  did  all  I  could  to  get  out  of  that 
Canadian  trip ;  it  nearly  did  me  up.  I  feel  I  shall  be  able  to 
work  here  several  days  each  week;  it  is  necessary."^ 

Three  days  later  he  returned  to  Bay  Head,  feeling  much 
better  and  determined  to  make  a  systematic  effort  to  cure 
his  heart  and  be  in  fine  shape  by  Christmas,  but,  he  writes, 
"it  requires  immense  self-restraint."  A  little  later,  after  a 
long  enumeration  of  details  and  obligations  which  must  be 
fixed  in  the  interest  of  the  various  large  enterprises  in  hand, 
he  writes:  "If  only  I  can  live  till  January  i,  1899, 1  can  cut 
loose  from  a  half-dozen  clogs  which  make  all  my  work 
superficial  and  poor,  and  make  me  dull  and  useless."  This 
was  his  calm  survey  of  the  road  before  him  and  of  his 
chances  of  pulling  through.     He  even  set  the  term  which 


'  MS.,  August  13,  1897. 
32  497 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1897 

he  might  reach  if  all  went  well.  He  realized  his  condition  : 
he  was  facing  death.  Life  is  a  tragedy  with  us  all,  but  it  is 
seldom  that  the  staging  is  so  impressive  and  the  details  of 
the  scenery  painted  so  vividly. 

With  full  knowledge  that  his  life  might  end  at  any  mo- 
ment, a  knowledge  which  he  shared  only  with  one  or  two 
helpful  friends,  he  concerned  himself  intensely  with  the  de- 
tails of  all  work  in  which  he  had  been  so  long  engaged, — 
the  lighting  and  heating  of  the  new  Museum  building,  the 
minutiae  of  literary  arrangements,  the  particular  form  of 
correspondence  which  should  be  pursued  with  representa- 
tives of  foreign  countries  in  the  interest  of  the  Commercial 
Museums.  It  was  a  strange  setting.  The  worst  of  all  was 
his  terrible  depression ;  his  spirits  could  not  rebound  from 
discouragement,  as  of  yore.  "  The  work  is  appalling,"  he 
notes  in  September ;  "  the  odds  are  against  us, — I  speak  of  the 
Loan  Bill.  There  is  so  much  at  stake."  And  he  told  again 
the  old  story  of  this  one  and  that  one  whose  opposition  was 
especially  hard  to  bear. 

The  response  which  the  City  Councils  gave  to  the  Free 
Library  movement  gave  him  great  joy.^  It  was  a  compen- 
sation for  much  that  had  been  expended  in  care  and  labor, 
but  his  demands  were  insatiable:  boulevard,  pure  water,  a 
better  public  educational  system,  well-paved  streets,  and  the 
Museums.  Life  was  too  short  for  it  all.  "I  have  been 
struggling  to  start,  but  am  not  fit  to  be  out  of  my  bed,"  he 
writes,  September  23 ;  "  every  day  I  increase  my  cold.  To- 
night I  ache  and  cough  hard.  Of  course  it  is  the  bad  weather 
and  the  excessive  exposure  and  work  all  day;  but  it  is  a 
wretched  business,  and  just  when  I  need  twice  my  greatest 

'  See  pp.  369-384. 

498 


JEt.  54]  THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

strength."  But  even  at  this  altitude  of  discouragement  there 
was  compensation.  Mr.  Widener  told  him  this  day  in  strict 
confidence  that  he  was  going  to  live  in  the  country,  and 
would  at  once  fit  up  his  house  on  North  Broad  Street  as  a 
library  and  give  it  to  the  Free  Library  in  memory  of  Mrs. 
Widener,  as  the  Josephine  Widener  Branch.^ 

In  the  olden  time  he  had  never  known  what  it  was  to  be 
worried ;  now  by  sundown  he  was  tired  out.  He  kept  his 
habit  of  rising  early,  even  at  four  o'clock,  to  begin  his  work, 
clearing  away,  with  the  aid  of  stenographers,  the  mass  of 
accumulated  correspondence ;  then  the  day  opened  with 
consultations,  committees,  patients,  and  public  business.  He 
felt  it  almost  too  good  to  be  true  that  the  Museums  had  at 
last  secured  a  fine  tract  of  land,  and  spoke  frequently  of  the 
grandeur  of  the  full  plan  if  it  could  be  carried  out.  On  the 
twenty-fifth  of  October  he  records  having  been  through  one 
of  the  hardest  weeks,  and  speaks  of  the  next  week  as  a  harder 
one.  "  I  awaken  regularly  at  four  o'clock,"  he  writes ;  "  throw 
a  shawl  over  my  shoulders  and  go  to  work  at  the  Loan  Bill 
campaign  till  seven,  when  I  rise."  His  hope  for  the  bill  was 
not  because  of  the  support  which  the  rich  and  mighty  gave 
it,  but  the  support  of  those  whom  he  called  "  the  little  folks." 
He  knew  that  the  public  desired  it ;  this  was  his  hope.  Had 
he  been  able  himself  to  manage  the  campaign  for  the  bill,  the 
issue  might  have  been  earlier  and  better,  but  there  were  many 
managers,  and  the  things  ran  rather  a  grotesque  course. 
Finally,  it  having  been  decided  that  the  question  ot  passing 
the  bill  should  first  be  referred  to  a  popular  vote,  on  the 
fourth  of  November  the  vote  was  taken,  resulting  in  a  heavy 
majority  in  favor  of  the  measure. 

'  See  p.  380. 

499 


WILLIAiM    PEPPER  [1897 

To  the  unsophisticated  this  seemed  all-sufficient,  but  the 
poHtically  wise  knew  that  it  meant  only  the  beginning  of  a 
struggle,  a  grand  rush  for  the  city  treasury  from  all  quarters. 
The  politicians  and  their  backers  would  now,  at  their  con- 
venience, settle  on  the  division  of  the  spoils.  From  this  time 
his  efforts  for  the  bill  were  practically  wasted.  It  would  have 
been  well  for  him  had  he  dropped  the  whole  matter  and  left 
Councils  in  the  hands  of  the  public  ;  but  he  did  not  see  it  in 
this  light.  His  real  malady  was  the  disease  of  work.  Now 
and  then  he  came  to  himself  with  a  little  confession  such  as 
that  of  November  twenty-fifth  :  "  Too  little  sleep  ;  five  hours 
is  not  enough."  But  the  confession  ended  the  matter ;  he 
went  on  working. 

On  the  thirtieth  of  November  he  expresses  his  joy  that 
the  month  has  passed ;  the  very  memory  of  the  work  done 
worries  him.  Early  in  December  he  is  at  the  Waldorf  in 
New  York  urging  upon  a  number  of  wealthy  men  and 
women  from  various  parts  of  the  country  the  foundation  of 
a  National  University.  He  trusted  much  to  the  influence  of 
the  women  of  the  country ;  more,  indeed,  than  to  that  of 
the  men.  Now  he  was  in  Washington,  now  in  New  York 
again  in  consultation  over  the  matter, — chagrined  most  of 
the  time  at  the  impotency  of  the  people  with  whom  he  had 
to  deal  and  despairing  because  of  the  jealousies  of  the  older 
Eastern  universities.  There  were  powerful  influences  against 
him  ;  too  powerfijl,  indeed,  to  be  overcome.  His  efforts  on 
behalf  of  this  enterprise  form  a  tragical  chapter  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  movement  which  Washington  began.  Had  Dr. 
Pepper  lived,  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  would  have  pursued 
the  undertaking  to  a  more  successful  end  than  it  ever  has 
attained. 

One  of  the  saddest  indications  of  the  change  which  sick- 

500 


JEt.  54]  THE    CLOSING    YEARS 

ness  had  wrought  in  his  disposition  was  his  depression,  and, 
at  times,  irritabihty,  and  his  suspicion  of  the  loyalty  of  some 
of  his  friends,  a  state  of  mind-  altogether  foreign  to  him  in 
health.  The  few  who  had  influence  over  him  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  restrain  him  from  overexertion.  They  feared  the  fatal 
moment,  but  he  misinterpreted  their  motives.  They  were 
wiser  than  he.  And  so  the  year  1897  closed  in  upon  him 
busy  with  many  things,  overreaching  his  strength,  planning 
an  impossible  activity,  and  the  hours  of  possible  work  short- 
ening week  after  week.  It  was  the  fourth  act  of  the 
tragedy. 

The  year  1898  opened  gloomily  for  him,  supersensitive 
as  he  was  to  every  change  in  the  weather  and  no  longer 
able  to  guard  against  disease.  On  the  fourth  of  January  he 
broke  down  again,  and  was  a  week  in  bed,  having,  as  he  said, 
"a  regular  demon  of  a  time  with  grippe."  He  struggled  up 
and  attempted  to  go  about  a  little,  and  planned  a  call  on  the 
German  ambassador  at  Washington,  but  was  forced  to 
abandon  it.  "  Collapse  and  relapse,  here  I  am  at  home  a 
week  again  and  as  weak  as  a  rag."  But  adds,  "  I  shall  be 
all  right  in  a  few  days  as  far  as  this  acute  attack  is  con- 
cerned." '  For  five  days  he  was  unable  to  sit  up  and  was 
forced  to  take  some  rest. 

On  the  sixteenth  he  was  still  in  bed  ;  the  grippe  had  settled 
on  his  chest  and  was  straining  his  heart.  "  I  can  sleep,  eat, 
and  every  one  is  kind.  I  sent  for  every  one  and  they  came 
most  obligingly ;"  and  among  those  for  whom  he  sent  were 
the  Mayor  and  leading  members  ot  Councils.  "  I  keep  up 
the  pressure  in  all  directions ;  politics  have  been  bitter."  The 
opposition,  he  believed,  must  lose  "  at  the  obstructive  game 


*  MS.,  January  10,  1898. 

501 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

they  are  playing  so  openly,  and  the  revulsion  against  Quay 
gains  force  daily  all  over  the  city.  The  Loan  Bill  comes  up  ' 
in  Councils  on  Thursday.  I  believe  it  will  pass  ;  then  for  the 
items.  I  shall  be  able  to  do  full  work  by  that  time,  if  there  J 
is  no  chronic  trouble  of  the  chest.  For  this  I  should  go  to 
Arizona ;  then  I  should  explore  with  Moorehead."  ^  And  he 
made  a  note  of  important  board  meetings  which  he  must 
attend,  one  to  be  held  at  his  own  house.  "  I  hope  to  go 
down-stairs  for  it,"  he  adds ;  but  he  did  not  rally.  Two  days 
later  he  was  hoping  to  be  out  by  the  end  of  the  week.  "  It 
has  been  a  hard  attack,  a  long  pull,  and  it  came  at  an  unfor- 
tunate time.     I  have  kept  in  touch  with  every  one." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Philadelphia  City  Solicitor 
gave  an  opinion  against  the  legality  of  the  water  scheme, 
the  projectors  of  which,  as  Dr.  Pepper  said,  were  "  plotting 
the  plunder  of  the  city."  "  It  may  delay  the  Loan  Bill. 
Typhoid  fever  is  raging,  however ;  it  is  truly  an  epidemic. 
Public  feeling  is  beginning  to  run  high.  If  there  is  no  fac- 
tious opposition  in  Councils,  I  shall  begin  a  bitter  campaign." 
Work  on  the  Museum  building  had  stopped  "  as  the  bricks 
frosted."  "  I  am  not  sorry,"  he  writes,  "  for  next  fall  begins 
to  seem  very  close  at  hand,  and  there  is  a  lot  of  study  to  be 
done  over  details  of  equipment."^  On  the  nineteenth  he  was 
out  of  bed  a  few  hours,  and  on  the  twentieth  went  down- 
stairs to  weigh  himself  He  had  lost,  but  he  records  not  a 
loss  of  weight  but  of  time.  He  consoled  himself  with  the 
thought  that  he  had  kept  in  touch  with  all  the  work. 

"  It  is  impossible,"  he  notes,  "  to  imagine  a  more  corrupt 
and  ugly  state  of  things  than  exists.  Typhoid  fever  is  raging, 
but  this  does  not  prevent  the  scheme  for  a  big  water  job 


•  MS.,  January  16,  1898.  *  MS.,  January  18,  1898. 

502 


Mr.  54]  THE    CLOSING    YEARS 

by  tying  up  all  legislation  in  Councils.  It  seems  wicked 
to  say  it,  but  I  believe  that  five  times  as  many  deaths  would 
each  save  scores  of  deaths  in  the  long  run."  He  had  not 
been  able  to  go  to  Washington,  but  had  sent  a  long  letter 
to  the  German  ambassador,  and  was  hopeful  that  that  official 
would  respond, — as  in  fact  he  did.  "  I  shall  be  about  on 
Monday,"  he  adds,  "  and  shall  get  at  work  at  once  at  the 
newspapers  in  regard  to  the  Loan  Bill,  and  start  an  active 
campaign  to  raise  money  to  keep  the  Museum  going."  ^ 
On  the  twenty-ninth  he  writes : 

"  I  do  not  gain  strength ;  it  seems  impossible  to  sleep  off  this 
wretched  disease.  I  force  myself  to  go  to  bed  early  and  to  stay 
many  hours  in  bed,  but  I  have  to  read  to  pass  the  time.  Mrs. 
Pepper  caught  the  grippe  from  me,  and  has  been  ill  for  ten  days. 
She  is  better  now,  and  I  shall  send  her  to  Florida.  I  do  not  want 
to  go  myself,  and  shall  not  do  so  unless  it  is  obligatory.  The  vote 
in  Common  Council  on  the  Loan  Bill  was  so  evidently  influenced 
by  corrupt  forces  that  it  is  arousing  wide-spread,  popular  remon- 
strance. On  top  of  this  comes  a  special  meeting  of  Councils  to 
jam  through  Judge  Green's  infernal  water  scheme.  This  is  going 
to  arouse  still  further  irritation.  They  have  bought  the  votes,  and 
I  have  no  doubt  they  will  put  it  through.  But  of  course  Warwick 
will  veto  it,  and  then  they  must  have  a  three-fifths  vote  in  each 
Chamber  to  pass  it  over  his  veto.  By  that  time  we  will  have  pop- 
ular indignation  worked  up  to  such  a  point  that  it  is  going  to  be  very 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  them  to  secure  the  votes.  The  news- 
papers are  all  in  line.  All  is  going  quietly  in  other  directions.  The 
Museum  goes  on  as  usual."  ^ 

He  abounded  in  good  resolutions. 

'  I  returned  to  bed  and  stayed  until  twenty-three  minutes  past 
one.     Now  I  spend  twelve  hours  out  of  every  twenty-four  in  bed. 

'  MS.,  January  20,  1898.  2  jvjs. 

503 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

I  begin  my  lectures  to-morrow.  I  am  gaining  in  weight ;  have 
gone  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  and  a  half,  and  intend  to  go  to 
one  hundred  and  sixty-seven.  I  intend  to  go  to  bed  at  half-past 
nine  for  the  rest  of  my  life.  I  awaken  at  half-past  two  or  three, 
read  two  hours,  then  sleep  till  eight.  The  town  is  red-hot  about 
the  Loan  Bill  and  the  water  scheme,  and  it  looks  as  if  we  might 
win.  The  epidemic  of  typhoid  is  a  blessing.  I  hope  it  may  con- 
tinue a  month  longer.  It  is  useless  to  prophesy,  however.  It 
makes  one  ashamed  of  the  city  he  lives  in.  It  is  all  due  at  bottom 
to  the  callous,  cold-blooded  domination  of  the  billionaires.  I  con- 
tinue to  improve,  but  am  very  careful ;  go  to  bed  every  night  at  the 
most  absurd  early  hours.  Mrs.  Pepper  will  start  with  Sarah  Leon- 
ard '  for  Palm  Beach  next  week  and  remain  until  April.  If  I  do 
not  get  entirely  well,  I  shall  run  down  for  a  short  time.  I  hope  to 
escape  the  necessity,  however."  ^ 

Five  days  later,  after  two  weeks  of  steadily  advancing 
convalescence,  when  he  had  gained  weight  and  felt  much 
better,  he  was  suddenly  "  bowled  off  his  legs,"  as  he  put  it, 
and  had  a  relapse  fully  as  severe  as  the  first  attack.  The 
grippe  affected  his  chest  more  severely  than  on  any  occasion 
since  the  attack  which  he  suffered  when  in  Antwerp  some 
years  before. 

*'  As  soon  as  I  can  be  moved  from  my  bed  to  the  car,"  he  writes, 
"  I  shall  go  to  Florida.  All  arrangements  are  made  for  Friday  of 
this  week.  We  have  not  been  beaten  yet  at  any  point.  The  Loan 
Bill  was  retarded  and  put  back  on  the  calendar.  The  Schuylkill 
Valley  scheme  was  not  brought  up.  I  think  it  is  altogether  the 
dread  of  the  elections  which  so  many  of  the  Councilmen  have  to 


'  His  niece,  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  James   Biddle  Leonard,   Dr. 
Pepper's  sister. 

'  MS.,  February  2,  1898. 

504 


JEt.  54]  THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

stand  this  month  ;  as  soon  as  that  ordeal  is  over  the  fight  will  be  on 
again.      I  shall  be  back  in  thoroughly  good  shape  in  time  for  it. 

*'  There  is  something  radically  wrong  or  I  should  not  have  had 
this  last  attack.  I  must  have  prolonged  rest  and  radical  change  of 
climate  as  soon  as  possible,  so  as  to  eradicate  the  poison  from  the 
system.  One  has  quite  enough  enemies  outside  to  fight  without 
having  internal  struggles  with  myriads  of  bugs  of  every  kind.  There 
is  no  danger,  however  ;  it  is  simply  annoying  and  tiresome.  I  do  not 
think  one  single  thing  has  been  imperilled  by  my  sickness.  The 
raising  of  money  has  been  the  only  thing  that  has  suffered,  and,  for- 
tunately, I  shall  be  able  to  make  that  up."  ^ 

On  the  twelfth,  at  midnight,  he  left  for  Florida. 

**  I  have  been  very  ill,  and  wonder  at  my  strength  at  throwing  it 
off  so  well,  but  I  have  got  another  struggle  ahead  to  get  back  full 
vigor.  I  was  doing  so  well,  was  stronger,  had  gained  flesh,  and  all 
seemed  safe.  A  second  blizzard  did  the  business.  Of  course  a 
relapse  is  always  so  much  worse.  The  struggle  has  been  too  long, 
too  ceaseless,  and  too  complex,  and  rest  had  to  be  taken.  Imagine 
the  uncertain  distress  of  spirit  I  have  gone  through.  The  world 
can  never  be  the  same  thing  to  me  again.  Careful  study  of  the 
situation  and  firm  resolves  are  needed,  but  I  have  fought  away  all 
depression  ;  have  refused  to  be  demoralized  or  discouraged.  Yes, 
life  is  the  same  everywhere.  We  give  ugly  names  to  what  men 
and  women  do,  but  they  are  the  regular  uniform  expression  of  life, 
varied  under  different  circumstances.  Cut  bono  P  We  must  do  it, 
is  the  only  answer.  We  are  no  better  off  if  we  do  not  than  if  we 
do.  Here  I  am,  thousands  of  miles  away,  crippled  in  health  for 
the  time,  and  yet  not  one  moment's  rest  do  I  find  from  plans  of 
larger  work,  as  though  the  only  thing  in  life  was  this  restless  strug- 
gle j  and  so  it  is,  if  made  as  we  are."  ' 


^  MS.,  February  7,  1898.  -  MS. 

505 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

The  relapse  proved  by  far  the  worst  he  had  suffered.  He 
said  that  he  lost  absolutely  taste,  smell,  hearing,  and  the 
power  of  sleep.  At  Palm  Beach  he  spent  two  weeks. 
"  Thanks  for  your  kind  note.  I  shall  be  back  early  in 
March,"  he  wrote,  "  I  trust  in  fine  condition :  we  will  try 
to  set  the  clock  back  a  bit  so  as  to  catch  up."  He  went 
to  St.  Augustine,  and  later  to  Jekyl  Island,  where  for  a  few 
days  he  was  benefited  by  the  cooler  and  more  bracing  cli- 
mate. His  weakness  was  so  extreme  that  for  a  week  he 
was  unable  to  write ;  but  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  February 
he  had  regained  his  power  of  sleep. 

"  As  I  used  to  have  it  and  as  I  must  and  shall  have  it  again.  I 
shall  be  stronger  than  for  three  years.  There  is  a  hard  fight  ahead, 
— underhand  work  and  treacherous  work  in  plenty.  The  water 
scheme  may  win ;  they  have  twenty-three  votes  in  Select  Chamber 
(just  enough  to  pass  it  over  the  Mayor's  veto)  ;  but  the  public  is 
growing  angry,  and  it  may  scare  some  of  them  off.  It  remains  to 
be  seen  what  can  be  done  in  Common  Council.  Warwick,  seeing 
the  Loan  Bill  could  not  pass  just  now,  was  foolish  enough  to  per- 
suade Seeds  to  introduce  a  resolution  to  give  ;^375,ooo  for  water, 
and  let  the  other  items  go  for  the  present.  Of  course  it  was  at 
once  loaded  down  with  amendments, — ^800,000  for  a  high  school, 
Jg  1,000,000  for  small  streets,  5300,000  for  sewers, — and  then  it  was 
killed.  I  was  fearfully  anxious  lest  it  be  passed  in  this  form,  for  of 
course  there  would  have  been  no  chance  for  the  Museum  and  Li- 
brary items  at  any  future  time,  these  more  popular  ones  having  been 
secured.  I  have  lain  awake  night  after  night,  and  telegraphed  vigor- 
ously. Now  the  fight,  through  March,  is  to  pass  or  to  kill  the  water 
scheme.  No  one  could  do  anything  to  secure  the  Loan  Bill  at  this 
session.  Then  there  has  been  the  '  Maine'  episode,  a  semi-panic, 
and  prices  all  to  pieces.  Well,  our  work  goes  on.  I  shall  be  back 
in  fine  condition  by  the  first  of  March.  Our  kind  friends  have  it  in 
the  paper  that  I  am  a  hopeless  wreck,  but  they  will  learn  soon ;  still 

506 


^T.  54]  THE   CLOSING    YEARS 

I  shall  be  very  cold-blooded  and  cautious.      I  must  study  selfishness 
thoroughly.      I  have  barely  lived  through  the  crisis."  ^ 

He  returned  home  better  than  he  hoped  to  be,  but  far 
from  well.  On  the  seventeenth  of  March  he  notes  that  he 
was  beginning  to  sleep,  and  so  hoped  that  his  strength  would 
come  back  by  degrees.  He  resumed  the  struggle  for  the 
Loan  Bill,  with  all  its  exacting  demands  and  terrible  inroads 
upon  his  vitality. 

"  For  myself,"  he  writes,  "  I  feel  a  little  better,  but  I  am  no 
better.  Of  course  no  one  in  the  world  knows  the  truth.  I  shall 
never  mention  it ;  but  it  is  very  serious,  and  is  the  outcome  of  fright- 
ful exhaustion  and  depressed  vitality  all  these  recent  years.  I  am 
doing  my  best,  and  shall  make  no  hasty  decision  ;  I  shall  wait  and 
strive  until  next  autumn.  Of  course  it  is  all  right,  and  I  deserve  it, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  depressing.  Organic  disease  fastens  its  roots 
in  us  insidiously,  and  then  all  the  glory  and  fun  in  life  go."  ^ 

Though  depressed  about  the  Loan  Bill,  he  "hatched  a 
new  notion  every  five  minutes  and  believed  some  of  them 
would  work  well." 

At  this  time  came  the  surprising  but  grateful  news  from 
Washington  that  the  prospect  of  an  appropriation  by  Con- 
gress to  the  Commercial  Museums  was  favorable.  This 
toned  him  up,  and  as  usual  tempted  him  to  overdo ;  but  he 
makes  a  note  that  he  got  nothing  done.  "  I  take  the  utmost 
care,"  he  writes,  "  but  neither  advance  nor  recede." 

He  re-entered  the  campaign  for  the  Loan  Bill  with  all  his 
old-time  skill  and  tact.  It  reminds  one  of  the  campaign  for 
the  Hospital  which  he  had  directed  a  quarter  of  a  century 


'  MS.,  February  27,  1898.  ^  March  2  (?),  1898. 

507 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

before.  He  made  a  political  map  of  the  city,  drawing  up  in 
detail  the  strength  of  the  opposition  in  every  ward:  first, 
certain  powerful  individuals  in  private  and  political  life  were 
to  give  their  orders  to  their  people ;  secondly,  certain  news- 
papers were  to  pursue  a  particular  course  and  publish  a  par- 
ticular kind  of  information.  The  First  and  the  Fifteenth 
wards  were,  as  he  put  it,  "  all  wrong."  In  other  wards  there 
were  leaders  who  must  be  seen  again  and  set  to  work. 
Twenty-one  votes  were  sure  in  Select  Council  for  the  meas- 
ure, but  four  more  were  necessary,  which  must  be  obtained 
from  five  doubtful  members ;  and  so  the  struggle  went  on. 
The  conclusion  of  the  matter  let  him  describe :  "  The  meet- 
ing at  the  City  Hall  was  most  tame.  H.  made  a  long 
speech  in  favor  of  the  impossible  Schuylkill  navigation  water 
scheme.  Then  the  ordinance  for  the  Loan  Bill  came  up, 
and,  to  my  amazement,  so  fully  had  the  committee  been  dealt 
with  it  in  advance  that  it  passed  almost  unanimously  after  a 
ten-minutes  talk  from  F.,  no  one  else  speaking."^  And  he 
adds,  "  I  am  very  weary ;  could  not  sleep  ;  arose  at  four.  Wc 
have  made  another  good  stroke.  Very  many  have  been  here 
to  congratulate." 

The  passage  of  the  Loan  Bill  renewed  his  hopes  and 
crowned  another  of  his  grand  successes.  For  a  few  weeks 
he  felt  vigorous  again,  but  it  was  the  effect  of  the  over- 
stimulation of  good  news.  It  was  good  as  long  as  it  lasted. 
On  the  fourteenth  of  April  he  notes :  "'  I  am  better ;  I  slept 
last  night  better  than  I  have  done  for  two  years ;"  and  he  was 
marking  out  a  new  campaign  to  gain  funds  for  the  Museum. 
He  was  in  Washington  on  the  twelfth,  stirring  up  interest 
and  support  for  the   Commercial  Museums,  every    minute 

'  MS. 

508 


JEr.  54]  THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

of  his  time  under  pressure.  The  usual  effect  followed. 
"  Hopeless,"  he  writes,  "  I  gave  up  my  lecture  in  hope  of 
throwing  off"  this  wretched  cold,  but  it  has  grown  worse  all 
day  and  I  am  going  to  bed."  The  beginning  of  July  came, 
and  Councils  had  done  nothing  with  the  details  of  the  Loan 
Bill, — that  is,  had  made  no  arrangement  for  the  actual  secur- 
ing of  the  money  which  it  empowered  them  to  raise.  Among 
the  items  were  large  appropriations  for  the  Museums,  for  the 
Free  Library,  and  for  filtration. 

The  object  of  the  campaign  now  was  to  get  Councils  to 
act,  and  to  effect  this  Dr.  Pepper  unwisely  remained  in  town. 
The  weather  became  unusually  warm  for  the  season  and  ag- 
gravated his  malady.  In  May  Dr.  Osier  records  that  he  saw 
him  the  last  time,  "  I  think  in  bed,  improving  rapidly  and 
very  cheerful ;  talking  much  of  his  plans,  particularly  for  the 
Commercial  Museums  and  for  the  Library.  He  spoke  of  a 
proposed  visit  to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  of  the  good  it  was 
sure  to  do  him."^  His  friends  were  urging  him  to  leave 
town  and  seek  rest  in  a  quiet  place ;  but  he  delayed,  hoping 
that  Councils  might  act.  The  heat  became  oppressive  and 
he  was  visibly  weakening  under  it.  His  anxieties  unnerved 
him.  "  If  it  costs  me  my  life,"  he  said,  earnestly,  on  June 
16,  "I  will  see  this  through.  Now,  don't  tease  me  about 
it ;  arguing  makes  me  nervous  and  lessens  my  strength.  I 
must  go  on  till  the  end."  After  all,  he  was  right,  for  the 
efforts  of  his  friends  to  drive  him  against  his  will  only  ex- 
hausted him;  but  thev  did  not  now  hesitate  to  tell  him 
plainly  what  delay  and  anxiety  meant. 

To  his  intimates  in  the  great  enterprises  on  hand  he  ex- 


'  Address   before   the   Johns    Hopkins  Medical  School,  October, 
1898. 

509 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

plained  the  details  of  his  plans  and  what  he  hoped  they 
would  carry  out.  He  made  light  of  his  physical  condition, 
and  especially  of  his  inability  to  walk  about.  The  symptoms 
were  becoming  grave,  his  condition  was  pitiful,  yet  he  had 
the  nerve  to  joke  about  them.  He  even  tried  to  deceive 
most  of  his  friends  as  to  his  health  ;  but  no  one  was  deceived. 
Day  by  day  he  diagnosed  himself  thoroughly  and  took  his 
weight.  Meanwhile  Councils  delayed  and  he  was  dying. 
Day  after  day  he  put  off  his  departure  for  the  Pacific  coast. 
There  were  fresh  delays  in  Councils  and  he  postponed  the 
day  of  his  departure.  Finally,  Councils  acted  about  the 
close  of  June,  and  he  was  free  to  go ;  but  he  was  in  no  con- 
dition to  use  his  freedom. 

His  agony  of  body  during  the  weary  days  was  intensified 
by  agony  of  mind  over  the  condition  of  his  beloved  sister,. 
Mrs.  James  B.  Leonard,  whose  health  for  some  time  had 
been  failing.  They  were  very  dear  to  each  other,  and  resem- 
bled one  another  in  temperament,  in  manner,  and  in  mental 
powers.  Most  unfortunate  was  it  that  at  this  time  his  phys- 
ical condition  deprived  her  of  his  professional  services.  He 
was  keenly  alive  to  this  affliction,  but  there  was  no  remedy. 
Paroxysms  of  pain  surged  over  him ;  frequently  he  was 
motionless  in  agony.  "  This  means  death,"  he  said  again 
and  again  to  Mr,  Leonard.  He  knew  that  there  was  only 
one  hope  for  him — absolute  rest.  Yet  when  the  pain  had 
passed  or  eased  a  little,  his  hopefulness  and  vivacity  would 
return. 

On  the  sixth  of  July  he  sent  a  note  to  Dr.  Wilson,  an- 
nouncing that  he  would  leave  for  California  on  the  following 
day,  but  would  be  back  in  September,  "  restored  to  health." 
The  last  three  weeks  in  Philadelphia  drained  his  vitality,, 
already  so  nearly  exhausted.     The  intense  heat  added  to  the 

510 


^T.  54]  THE    CLOSING    YEARS 

danger.  His  nerve  force  alone  kept  him  going,  and  that  was 
almost  gone.  On  the  twelfth  of  July  he  telegraphed  to 
Mrs.  Stevenson,  whom  he  left  in  charge  of  some  of  his  in- 
terests :  "  I  arrived  at  San  Francisco  yesterday ;  endured  the 
voyage ;  hope  to  improve ;  cannot  bear  removal  to  the 
Hacienda;  make  only  favorable  statements."^  Two  days 
later  Mrs.  Hearst  wrote  to  the  same  friend :  "  Dr.  Pepper 
begs  me  to  say  that  he  has  passed  his  exhaustion  on  his 
arrival  at  San  Francisco.  He  has  certainly  gained  slightly, 
but  a  long  complete  rest  seems  to  me  imperative.  We  hope 
to  take  him  to  the  Hacienda  Saturday.  I  fear  his  exertions 
for  many  interests  have  been  pushed  too  far." 

On  the  seventeenth  he  wrote  through  Mrs.  Hearst  from 
the  Hacienda :  "  The  cut  about  the  Loan  Bill  worries  me ;  I 
cannot  believe  serious  trouble  can  be  raised.  We  have  done 
our  best,  and  if  the  people  wish  to  start  up  trouble  I  do  not 
intend  to  worry  any  more  about  it.  It  is  very  restful  here 
and  most  beautiful.  I  am  still  confined  to  bed,  and  it  is 
clear  my  improvement  will  be  slow.  Among  them  they 
have  managed  to  rob  me  of  my  vitality ;  they  will  have  to 
be  satisfied  until  I  build  up  again."  ^  Telegrams  came,  bul- 
letins of  his  health,  or  inquiries  concerning  the  Loan  Bill. 
On  the  twenty-sixth  he  dictated  his  last  note,  which  was 
read  after  his  death:  "I  have  not  been  strong  enough  to 
write.  I  will  hastily  touch  upon  a  few  points  only.  I  am 
very  glad  for  the  good  news  about  the  Loan  Bill.  I  believe 
there  will  be  a  broader  and  finer  development  in  Philadelphia 
in  the  next  five  years  than  ever  has  been  in  an  American 
city.  I  am  certainly  gaining  daily.  It  is  one  of  the  finest 
airs  and  places  I  know  of  in  the  whole  country.  The  air  is 
a  strong  one."' 


MS.  '  MS.  •"•  MS. 

511 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

The  story  of  the  closing  days  has  been  told  by  his  at- 
tending physician.^ 

"  Accompanied  by  Dr.  Taylor  and  his  valet,  Benoit,  Dr.  Pepper 
left  Philadelphia  for  the  West  on  July  7,  1898.  Since  the  middle 
of  June  he  had  become  markedly  weaker,  his  breathing  was 
labored,  his  energy  reduced,  and  his  usually  limitless  initiative  ambi- 
tion seemed  strangely  depressed.  He  felt  that  the  damp,  sultry 
climate  of  the  Atlantic  slope  was  unfavorable  to  him,  and  was  con- 
vinced that  he  ought  to  leave  it  as  soon  as  possible.  Late  in  June 
he  consulted,  in  regard  to  his  health.  Dr.  J.  C.  Da  Costa,  between 
whom  and  Dr.  Pepper  a  strong  bond  of  personal  affection  and 
mutual  respect  existed.  Dr.  Da  Costa  gave  him  and  his  condition 
the  most  careful  attention,  confirmed  in  every  particular  Dr.  Pep- 
per's own  opinions  of  his  case,  as  well  as  the  previous  diagnosis  of 
Dr.  Stengel  and  Dr.  Taylor,  and  sanctioned  the  western  trip,  feel- 
ing, as  we  all  felt,  that  only  at  such  a  great  distance  from  the  centre 
of  his  labors  could  he  secure  that  complete  rest  which  his  condition 
so  urgently  demanded.  His  professional  affairs  were  placed  in  the 
hands  of  his  son,  for  whose  professional  future  he  was  so  solicitous. 
His  civic  and  administrative  matters  were  remanded  to  the  care  of 
associates,  and  without  further  delay  his  departure  was  accomplished 
upon  July  7. 

"  At  the  outset  of  the  journey,  as  the  result  of  an  earnest  dis- 
cussion with  Dr.  Taylor,  Dr.  Pepper  entered  into  an  agreement 
regarding  correspondence  and  business  details  destined  to  entirely 
relieve  him  of  all  cares.  He  agreed  to  write  no  letters,  send  no 
telegrams,  read  none  but  immediate  personal  letters,  and  in  addi- 
tion to  allow  even  the  smallest  details  of  his  personal  care  to 
devolve  upon  his  valet.  This  arrangement  was  not  entered  into 
because  he  lacked  the  strength  to  do  these  things,  but  in  order  to 
secure  the  most  complete  rest.      It  was  realized  that  the  causes  of 


^  Dr.  Alonzo  E.  Taylor. 

512 


Mt.  54]  THE    CLOSING    YEARS 

this  arrangement  might  be  misinterpreted,  as  indeed  they  were. 
The  arrival  to  members  of  his  family  of  letters  written  by  Dr. 
Taylor  raised  the  inference  that  he  was  too  weak  and  ill  to  write, 
which  was  at  no  time  the  case.  Nevertheless,  he  felt  that  he 
ought  to  continue  the  arrangement  as  affording  the  best  opportu- 
nity for  rest. 

"  The  journey  to  the  West  was  accomplished  without  especial 
incident.  As  far  as  Chicago,  and  during  the  nine-hour  *■  stop-over' 
in  that  city,  the  heat  was  excessive  and  oppressed  him  greatly. 
Beyond  the  great  Mississippi  the  weather  was  cool  and  pleasant 
throughout,  with  the  exception  of  the  few  hours  spent  passing 
across  the  Sacramento  valley.  During  the  hours  of  travel  his  active 
mind,  turned  from  the  duties  of  his  career,  sought  relief  in  fiction, 
and  devoured,  one  after  another,  all  the  volumes  available  on  the 
train,  in  addition  to  a  large  supply  procured  in  Chicago.  At 
evening  he  would  tie  his  candlestick  to  the  clasps  of  the  window 
curtain,  and  read  far  into  the  night.  During  the  first  two  nights 
trouble  was  experienced  in  procuring  food  for  him.  These  difficul- 
ties were  obviated  by  the  purchase  in  Omaha  of  such  untensils  as 
were  needed,  and  these  and  Benoit's  nightly  efforts  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  lunches  were  the  subject  of  his  continual  jesting.  His 
spirits  were  of  the  most  buoyant  nature ;  never  a  doubt  or  a  seri- 
ous distraction  seemed  to  cross  his  mind.  His  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful  scenery  through  which  he  passed  was  as  vivid  and  keen 
as  could  be  imagined,  and  his  solicitude  for  the  crops  and  the  pros- 
perity of  the  people  of  those  sections  was  beautiful  to  witness. 
We  reached  San  Francisco  on  the  evening  of  July  11,  and  were 
met  at  the  Oakland  Mole  by  carriages  with  Mrs.  Hearst,  Miss 
Lane,  Pvliss  Apperson,  and  the  solicitous  and  faithful  Robert.  We 
were  conveyed  to  apartments  in  the  Palace  Hotel,  where  a  hot  and 
tempting  repast,  prepared  by  Robert,  awaited  him. 

"We  remained  in  San  Francisco  until  July  16.  During  those 
days  the  city  was  filled  with  troops,  the  papers  were  filled  with 
war  news,  and  Dr.  Pepper  was  upon  the  top  of  the  wave  all  the 
33  513 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

time.  The  fact  that  FVanklin  was  in  the  service  of  his  country 
seemed  only  to  increase  his  great  natural  interest  in  the  vital  affairs 
of  the  nation.  Insomnia  troubled  him  during  these  days,  and 
again  his  resource  was  to  fiction,  of  which  a  large  collection  from 
Doxie's  was  placed  at  his  disposal.  The  trunks  were  delayed,  and 
this  necessitated  the  purchase  of  necessary  clothing,  during  the 
selection  of  which  he  remarked  that  not  all  the  wool  was  in  the 
garments,  since  some  of  it  was  being  pulled  over  our  eyes  !  Here, 
too,  his  spirits  were  of  the  best,  and  his  playful  jesting  with  the 
*■  girls,'  as  he  affectionately  termed  Mrs.  Hearst's  young  friends, 
was  a  daily  routine.  All  his  food  was  prepared  according  to  his 
every  desire,  by  the  versatile  Robert ;  his  rooms  were  filled  with 
beautiful  flowers,  and  the  most  perfect  care  for  his  comfort  and 
welfare  was  displayed  by  Mrs.  Hearst,  her  friends,  her  servants,  and 
by  his  faithful  Benoit.  A  number  of  his  old  professional  friends 
were  in  the  city,  among  them  Clifford  AUbutt,  of  London,  but  he 
declined  to  see  any  of  them. 

*' On  Saturday  afternoon,  July  16,  the  entire  party,  including 
Mrs.  Hearst,  Miss  Lane,  Miss  Apperson,  and  Mr.  de  Reyter,  went 
in  a  private  car  to  Hacienda  del  Poze  de  Verona.  The  day  was 
most  perfect,  and  the  short  trip  seemed  to  refresh  him  greatly.  He 
purchased  cherries  from  the  urchins  who  clamored  to  sell  them  at 
the  successive  stations  along  the  road,  supplied  the  entire  party 
with  cherries,  ate  them  himself,  and  popped  the  seeds  about  with 
the  light-heartedness  of  a  boy.  Miss  Lane  told  his  fortune  with 
cards,  and  in  this  happy  manner  the  trip  was  accomplished. 

"  On  the  arrival  at  Hacienda  del  Poze  de  Verona  the  party  was 
leisurely  driven  through  the  gorgeous  gardens  to  the  house.  With 
characteristically  accurate  memory  Dr.  Pepper  had  preserved  an 
exact  picture  of  the  gardens  and  orchards  as  they  appeared  at  the 
time  of  his  previous  visit  two  years  ago.  Since  that  time  they 
had  been  very  much  changed,  and  each  improvement  and  new 
beauty  was  noted  and  commented  upon  by  him. 

"  Upon  our  entrance  into  the  house.  Dr.  Pepper  was  most  com- 

514 


Mr.  54]  THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

fortably  ensconced  in  the  large  guests'  room  at  the  western  end  of 
the  long  hall,  Benoit  being  placed  in  the  room  directly  adjoining  it. 
Mr.  de  Ruyter  immediately  set  out  with  the  gamekeeper  to  procure 
young  birds  for  Dr.  Pepper's  dinner.  He  had  borne  the  trip  very 
well  and  was  very  cheerful  and  hopeful  of  speedy  improvement, 
and  such  was  indeed  the  truth.  From  this  time  until  the  day  of 
his  death  his  symptoms  were  gradually  ameliorated.  His  breathing 
became  less  frequent  and  much  less  labored,  his  color  became  better, 
he  slept  soundly  and  long,  and  the  signs  of  heart  weakness  became 
less  pronounced.  He  then  believed  that  he  would  recover,  and 
turned  his  attention  to  the  selection  of  a  resort  for  the  winter.  Many 
regions  were  discussed,  but  his  thoughts  continually  reverted  to 
Hawaii,  and  he  finally  decided  that  in  October  he  would  summon 
Mrs.  Pepper,  and  pass  the  early  part  of  the  coming  winter  in  that 
balmy  island. 

"  The  reading  of  fiction  and  conversation  were  his  two  occupa- 
tions. The  works  of  Kipling  and  Stevenson  were  devoured  en 
bloc.  When  he  became  weary  of  reading,  willing  hands  and  voices 
sought  the  privilege  of  reading  to  him.  Mrs.  Hearst  did  the  large 
part  of  the  reading  to  him ;  he  was,  however,  very  fond  also  of  the 
reading  of  Miss  Lane,  whose  mood,  voice,  and  manner  soothed  him 
remarkably.  Each  morning  he  eagerly  awaited  the  daily  letter 
from  Mrs.  Pepper,  and  was  deeply  relieved  to  learn  that  she  re- 
mained well. 

"  Four  days  after  his  arrival  he  was  transferred  to  Mrs.  Hearst's 
rooms,  which  were  preferred  on  account  of  their  location,  and  in 
these  he  remained  until  his  death. 

"  In  accordance  with  the  almost  Spartan  simplicity  of  his  habits 
he  now  became  rigorously  plain  in  his  diet,  and  finally  settled  upon 
malted  milk  as  the  best  diet  for  his  condition.  Of  this  he  con- 
sumed a  great  many  bottles,  '  enough  to  fatten  an  elephant  *  he 
once  said.  He  lived  upon  it  until  the  end.  His  own  perceptions 
of  his  condition  were  as  keen  and  his  observations  as  clear-cut  as 
they  were  in  his  consideration  of  the  ailments  of  his  own  patients. 

SIS 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

Each  day  the  events  of  the  previous  day  were  discussed  with  Dr. 
Taylor,  the  records  were  reviewed,  and  the  plans  for  the  day  then 
calmly  decided  upon.  It  was  beautiful  to  see  how  objective  he  was 
able  to  make  his  own  condition  appear  before  his  own  judgment, 
and  in  this  again  lay  further  evidence  of  his  remarkable  mental 
powers. 

"  His  thoughts  and  words  often  turned  towards  his  children.  He 
seemed  so  glad  that  Franklin  was  in  the  service  of  his  country. 
For  the  professional  progress  of  Will  he  had  many  plans  :  work  in 
the  laboratory,  in  the  wards  of  the  University  Hospital,  in  dispen- 
saries, in  his  own  office,  and  among  his  own  patients.  That  during 
his  absence  Will  should  have  full  charge  of  his  office  was  a  con- 
stant joy  to  him. 

"  Naturally  the  University  and  the  other  institutions  occupied 
his  thoughts  a  great  deal,  and  were  frequently  discussed.  His  deep 
faith  in  natural  progress  and  his  sanguine  temperament  lent  to  his 
discussion  upon  these  subjects  a  roseate  hue. 

"  The  climatic  conditions  were  most  favorable  during  the  sojourn 
at  Hacienda.  While  the  days  were  warm,  the  humidity  was  very 
low,  and  the  nights  were  cool ;  each  evening  an  open  fire  was  built 
in  the  fireplace,  and  it  was  often  his  pleasure  to  postpone  the  light- 
ing of  the  room  that  he  might  enjoy  the  open  fire.  During  the 
latter  days  of  his  life  he  sat  most  of  the  time  upon  a  spacious 
couch  and  at  night  he  slept  upon  it  also,  preferring  it  to  the  bed  at 
whose  footboard  it  stood.  The  rooms  daily  received  consignments 
of  cut  flowers.  Most  peculiarly,  however,  the  odor  of  roses 
became  distasteful  to  him  and  he  could  not  tolerate  their  presence. 
He  received  from  his  hostess  the  most  perfect  care  and  attention, 
and  could  these  have  maintained  life  he  would  be  alive  to-day. 

"  Upon  the  twenty-eighth  of  July  he  felt  as  well  as  upon  the 
preceding  days.  He  spent  the  morning  in  reading,  and  took  his 
glass  of  malted  milk  every  three  hours.  During  the  morning  a 
telegram  came  announcing  that  Battery  A  had  been  ordered  to 
Porto  Rico.     He  telegraphed  his  congratulations  and  seemed  deeply 

516 


^T.  54]  THE   CLOSING   YEARS 

pleased  that  Franklin  was  to  see  active  service  for  his  country.    He 
also  dictated  a  very  hopeful  letter  to  Dr.  Da  Costa. 

"  Mrs.  Hearst,  and  later  Dr.  Taylor,  read  to  him  during  the 
afternoon,  from  Stevenson's  *■  Treasure  Island.'  At  six  o'clock  he 
took  his  supper  as  usual,  and  afterwards,  discussing  his  condition 
with  Dr.  Taylor,  expressed  the  opinion  that  circumstances  were  so 
favorable  that  he  thought  the  doses  of  his  medicine  ought  to  be 
reduced,  a  procedure  which  was  agreed  upon  should  begin  to- 
morrow. At  half-past  seven  dinner  was  announced,  and  Dr.  Taylor 
retired  to  the  dining-room,  which  was  just  beneath  the  room  occu- 
pied by  Dr.  Pepper.  At  eight  o'clock  he  complained  of  pain  in 
his  chest,  and  Benoit  sent  at  once  for  Dr.  Taylor,  who  came  imme- 
diately and  found  him  upon  the  verge  of  an  attack  of  angina  pec- 
toris, into  which  he  rapidly  passed.  All  efforts  towards  stopping 
the  attack  and  restoring  cardiac  action  were  unavailing  and  in  a 
few  moments  he  was  dead.  This  attack  of  angina  pectoris  was  the 
first  one  he  had  suffered  since  four  months  :  his  first  attack  was 
some  three  years  ago.  It  was  his  repeatedly  expressed  conviction, 
and  also  the  opinion  of  his  associates,  that  angina  pectoris  would 
end  his  life,  but  none  expected  it  so  soon.  Seneca  termed  it  '  the 
disease  of  noble  men.'  The  organic  conditions  underlying  the  dis- 
ease were  produced  by  long-continued  mental  overwork.  Verily  he 
gave  his  life  for  others,  for  the  public  good." 

To  Dr.  Osier  Dr.  Taylor  wrote  later : 

"  He  died  at  eight  in  the  evening  with  a  copy  of  '  Treasure  Island' 
in  his  hands.  At  seven  I  had  left  him  gazing  upon  Mount  Diabolo, 
shadowed  in  the  gathering  darkness.  I  was  called  at  eight  and 
found  him  in  the  attitude  and  with  the  expression  of  angor  animi^ 
from  which  he  never  roused.  He  had  suffered  a  few  months  before 
with  cardiac  dilatation  ;  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  recovering 
the  lost  compensation,  and  appeared  on  the  clear  road  to  recovery. 
He  had  said,  a  few  days  before, '  the  battle  has  been  won.'  Through- 
out  his   illness   he  exhibited   the   most   perfect   disposition  and  the 

517 


WILLIAM    PEPPER  [1898 

greatest  patience  and  forbearance.  .  .  .  The  fatal  attack  was,  I 
think,  about  the  seventh,  extending  over  a  period  of  three  years ; 
the  last  previous  attack  was  in  April,  at  the  time  he  was  lecturing 
upon  angina  pectoris.  H€  knew  that  the  end  must  come  some  day, 
but  he  did  not  expect  it  so  soon.  I  have  never  seen  so  beautiful  a 
nature  in  sickness ;  his  conduct  and  disposition  were  worthy  of 
Marcus  Aurelius." 

With  such  a  book  as  "  Treasure  Island  "  in  his  hand,  we 
can  imagine  that  the  great  Enchanter  of  the  Pacific  had 
filled  his  mind  with  the  possibilities  of  peace  and  quiet, — so 
long  denied  him, — possibilities  turned  instantly  to  realities 
with  the  summons  to  the  peace  and  quiet  of  an  eternal  rest. 
Some  of  Stevenson's  lines  express  both  the  spirit  in  which 
William  Pepper  utilized  his  time  in  the  service  of  his  fellow- 
men  and  the  chief  lesson  of  his  life  to  us  who  survive : 

"  Contend,  my  soul,  for  moments  and  for  hours  ; 
Each  is  with  service  pregnant,  each  reclaimed 
Is  as  a  kingdom  conquered,  where  to  reign." 

The  remains  were  placed  in  a  private  car  and  the  journey- 
home  was  begun  on  July  30.  As  in  his  last  weeks  of 
life  friends  had  surrounded  him  with  every  care  and  comfort, 
so  in  death  they  surrounded  his  remains  with  floral  beauties. 
The  car  was  most  appropriately  and  beautifully  decorated. 
The  long  journey  to  the  East  was  accomplished  without  inci- 
dent, and  Philadelphia  was  reached  upon  the  noon  of  the 
fifth  day.  Throughout  the  journey  many  physicians  who 
had  learned  their  art  from  him  visited  the  car  and  viewed  the 
remains.  The  announcement  in  the  city  papers,  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  July,  that  Dr.  Pepper  was  dead  surprised 
and  shocked  the  community. 

Private  services  were  held  at  his  late  residence  on  the 
morning  of  the  sixth  of  August,  followed  by  public  services 

S18 


JEt.  54]  THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

at  St.  James's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  The  honorary 
pall-bearers  were  William  Piatt  Pepper;  General  Isaac  J. 
Wistar;  Edward  H.  Clark,  of  New  York;  William  J. 
Latta  ;  ex-Governor  Daniel  H.  Hastings ;  Mayor  Charles  F. 
Warwick  ;  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  representing  the  Trustees 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania ;  Frederick  Fraley,  repre- 
senting the  American  Philosophical  Society ;  Joseph  G. 
Rosengarten,  representing  the  Philadelphia  Free  Library ;  ex- 
United  States  Senator  George  F.  Edmunds,  representing  the 
Philadelphia  Museums ;  P.  A.  B.  Widener,  representing  the 
Philadelphia  Exposition  Association ;  Hampton  L.  Carson, 
representing  the  general  Alumni  Association  of  the  Uni- 
versity; and  Daniel  Baugh,  representing  the  Free  Museum 
of  Science  and  Art.  The  rector  of  the  church.  Rev.  Joseph 
N.  Blanchard,  D.  D.,  officiated.  During  the  services  the 
hymn  was  sung  which  was  sung  at  the  funeral  of  Dr.  Pepper's 

father : 

"  O  Paradise  !   O  Paradise  ! 

Who  doth  not  crave  for  rest  ? 
Who  would  not  seek  the  happy  land 

Where  they  that  loved  are  blest  ? 
Where  loyal  hearts  and  true 

Stand  ever  in  the  light, 
All  rapture  through  and  through, 

In  God's  most  holy  sight." 

It  was  a  sultry  August  day,  and  the  city  was  hushed  in 
summer  stillness  ;  yet  the  church  was  crowded,  and  all  looked 
conscious  of  the  city's  irreparable  loss.  The  funeral  services 
were  unostentatious,  like  the  man  over  whose  form  they  were 
rendered.  Towards  evening  his  ashes  were  deposited  at 
Laurel  Hill,  where  he  had  played  as  a  child,  for  Fairy  Hill 
has  become  Laurel  Hill.     Here,  amidst  his  kindred,  he  rests. 

S19 


WILLIAM   PEPPER 


VII 

IN  MEMORIAM 

COMMENTS  on  his  character  and  work  appeared  in 
above  four  hundred  newspapers  and  magazines  rep- 
resenting every  part  of  the  country ;  but,  with  one 
or  two  exceptions,  these  comments  told  the  world  very  little 
that  was  new  or  unknown  about  him.  It  was  the  common 
opinion  that  he  had  killed  himself  by  overwork,  but  that  he 
had  accomplished  more  than  most  men  ever  dreamed  of 
doing.  His  reputation  as  a  physician  and  medical  writer 
and  his  great  services  to  the  University  were  commented 
on  with  commendable  discemment  by  the  newspapers  pub- 
lished in  his  native  State  and  in  adjoining  States.  The  record 
was  of  the  deeds  and  departure  of  a  remarkable  man. 

It  was  the  judgment  of  the  world,  and  undoubtedly  a  true 
judgment,  that  he  over-estimated  the  importance  of  the  office 
of  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  had 
made  the  office  notable  and  desirable.  He  found  it  obscure 
and  avoided  by  many  educators.  There  was  little  in  the 
office  in  1881  to  attract  the  attention  of  any  man  of  estab- 
lished reputation.  In  1894,  after  the  transforming  labors  of 
Dr.  Pepper,  the  office  was  an  object  of  great  desire  in  certain 
quarters,  because  he  gave  it  standing  and  fame  and  made  it 
the  centre  of  education  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  of  social 
distinction  in  Philadelphia.  There  was  no  doubt  that  the 
world  estimated  him  quite  as  accurately  as  he  did  himself 
It  saw  first  in  him  the  physician  whose  "  uncanny  insight," 
as  he  described  it,  into  the  ailments  of  mankind  gave  him 

520 


IN   MEMORIAM 

analytical  powers  rarely  equalled ;  secondly,  it  thought  of 
him  as  a  man  of  affairs,  interested  in  large  enterprises  of 
public  interest, — the  sanitary  condition  of  the  city,  the  beau- 
tifying of  its  streets  and  park^,  the  purity  of  its  water  supply, 
and  the  general  economic  administration  of  its  affairs. 

Included  in  these  public  affairs  were  his  efforts,  all  highly 
successful,  for  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  commercial, 
art,  and  scientific  museums,  free  to  the  public  and  devoted 
to  the  illustration  and  advancement  of  great  human  interests. 
Herein  lay  the  power  of  the  man, — that  he  recognized  the 
value  of  education  and  knew  how  to  provide  it  for  the 
public  in  a  most  effective  way.  He  was  literally  a  disciple 
of  Pope,  and  believed  that  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is 
man.  His  discipleship  took  a  utilitarian  turn,  and  was  based, 
in  the  true  sense,  on  the  favorite  doctrines  of  Dr.  Franklin. 
It  was  not  uncommon  in  Dr.  Pepper's  lifetime  to  hear  him 
and  Franklin  compared,  and  the  comparison  was  occasioned 
not  merely  by  the  connection  of  Dr.  Pepper  to  Franklin 
through  marriage,  but  to  the  obvious  continuity  of  method 
and  results  visible  in  the  workings  of  the  two  men.^ 

Not  presuming  to  say  how  Dr.  Pepper  found  Philadelphia, 
it  is  just  to  his  fame  to  observe  that  he  left  it  with  ideas. 
His  long  struggle  which  inspired  the  two  now  celebrated 
addresses  on  the  medical  profession  and  its  relation  to  the 
public,  was  only  an  introduction  to  a  series  of  struggles  for 
reform  in  other  directions.  No  effort,  however  laborious, 
alarmed  him.  He  loved  the  smoke  of  battle.  All  he  asked 
was  a  fair  field  and  a  fair  fight ;  he  knew  that  his  unflagging 


'  An  admirable  allusion  to  Pepper  and  Franklin  was  made  by 
James  M.  Beck  in  his  oration  on  the  occasion  of  the  unveiling  of 
Franklin's  statue  at  Ninth  and  Chestnut  Streets. 

521 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

energy,  his  prodigious  push,  and  his  self-sacrificing  labor,  all 
directed  by  his  genius  for  overcoming  obstacles,  adjusting 
difficulties,  and  utilizing  men,  would  give  him  the  victory. 
Others  might  hesitate,  he  pushed  forward ;  others  might 
doubt,  his  faith  was  serene.  Thus  it  happened  oftentimes 
that  he  stood  almost  alone  in  the  struggle. 

Those  who  associated  with  him  intimately  will  recall 
more  than  one  occasion  when  a  meeting  in  the  interest  of 
some  undertaking  had  been  called  and  only  a  ftv/  responded 
by  their  presence ;  he  would  take  the  chair,  proceed  with 
the  business  agreed  upon,  and,  though  only  a  handful  were 
present,  would  conduct  the  business  with  the  gravity  that 
might  be  displayed,  as  the  unthinking  might  imagine,  before 
a  vast  company,  divide  and  subdivide  the  work,  and  adjourn 
the  meeting  with  every  detail  of  the  program  provided  for. 
In  this  he  well  illustrated  that  principle  in  equity,  that  a 
thing  is  done  which  ought  to  be  done. 

As  a  parliamentarian  he  was  notable  for  ignoring  petty 
rules  of  procedure,  and  it  was  said  that  "  Dr.  Pepper's  manual 
was  better  than  Cushing's  or  Jefferson's,  at  least  for  Pepper's 
purposes ;"  but  none  took  offence  at  his  jumping  over  rules. 
The  great  work  moved  on.  No  one  was  offended — it  was 
Dr.  Pepper.  He  often  fretted  under  restraint,  but  of  this  his 
outer  calm  gave  no  hint.  His  reputation  for  achieving 
success  under  any  circumstances  gave  him  standing  among 
men  of  every  calling,  and  his  short,  direct  method  rather 
pleased  than  displeased.  His  capacity  for  comparing  and 
weighing  facts  and  conditions  was  of  a  high  order.  It  lay 
at  the  foundation  of  his  success  as  a  diagnostician ;  once  in 
the  possession  of  all  the  facts  his  conclusions  were  rarely 
incorrect.  The  percentage  of  error  in  them  was  so  small  as 
to  pass  for  nothing.     Thus,  business  men,  who  all  their  lives 

522 


IN   MEMORIAM 

had  been  trained  in  the  intricacies  of  finance  or  of  great  in- 
dustrial enterprises,  recognized  his  capacity  for  sound  judg- 
ment, and  freely  consulted  him  or  took  his  conclusions 
unhesitatingly.  He  was  by  nature  a  good  business  man 
and  had  that  despised  love  of  details  which  Napoleon  said 
was  the  first  condition  of  success  in  life. 

Fully  conscious  of  his  power  of  arriving  at  accurate  con- 
clusions, his  chief  labor  was  to  secure  complete  and  accurate 
data  in  the  matters  before  him,  whence  it  was  that  he  gave 
assiduous  attention  to  whomsoever  might  have  the  requisite 
knowledge.  Occasionally  he  was  deliberately  deceived,  but 
the  deceiver  promptly  suffered  the  penalty  of  never  being 
believed  by  him  again. 

His  love  of  work  and  ceaseless  activity  were  a  disease, 
incurable,  but  encouraged  by  more  activity.  He  fed  upon 
work,  and  yearned  for  it  even  when  supposed  to  be  resting. 
The  centre  of  greatest  activity  was  the  centre  of  his  affec- 
tions, and  the  truest  picture  of  the  man  is  of  one  consumed 
by  work.  He  was  given  to  putting  himself  into  perspective, 
subjecting  himself,  as  it  were,  into  viewing  and  noting  his 
own  activity.  With  him  the  greatest  day,  the  happiest  day, 
was  the  busiest  day.  Eating  seemed  like  a  waste  of  time ; 
sleeping  was  a  necessary  evil.  Action,  action  was  life.  Thus 
at  intervals  of  years  he  made  records  of  a  typical  day,  which 
began  soon  after  midnight  of  one  day  and  closed  late  after 
midnight  the  next.  Loving  work  himself  with  unappeasable 
affection,  he  loved  those  who  loved  work.  The  best  intro- 
duction to  him  was  a  reputation  for  usefulness  and  activity. 
In  persons  of  such  habits  he  found  congenial  spirits.  He 
welcomed  them.  His  love  for  persons  of  activity  was  like 
Frederick  the  Great's  fondness  for  tall  soldiers.  Whence  it 
followed  that  his  most  intimate  associates  were  young  men, 

523 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

and  these  he  bound  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel.  Some 
achieved  distinction  in  the  world  and  forgot  him,  or  denied 
the  constructive  influence  which  he  had  at  one  time  pos- 
sessed over  them  ;  others  who  achieved  fame  carried  him  in 
their  hearts,  and  to  this  day  think  of  him  with  affection. 

His  unselfishness  was  the  despair  of  his  enemies ;  they 
never  understood  it.  It  was  impossible,  they  said,  that  he 
could  do  all  that  he  did  merely  for  the  public  good.  They 
declared  that  he  got  his  pay  in  the  greater  activity  and  pub- 
licity which  his  so-called  altruistic  enterprises  called  forth. 
This  interpretation  was  made  particularly  by  men  who  had 
been  associated  with  him  for  a  time,  had  been  advanced 
through  his  influence,  and  had  attained  some  degree  of  inde- 
pendence in  place  and  power.  But  the  wise  ones  understood 
him.  The  financiers,  the  captains  of  industry,  the  men  who 
knew  men  because  they  dealt  with  large  things  constantly, 
made  a  true  measure  of  him.  They  gave  freely  in  support 
of  his  enterprises,  because  they  knew  it  was  for  the  public 
welfare  and  that  he  asked  nothing  for  himself.  Secretly  some 
of  them  regretted  that  a  man  of  such  genius  should  waste 
his  life  for  the  general  welfare. 

He  had  a  genius  for  making  money,  and,  had  he  so  chosen, 
might  have  become  one  of  the  millionaires  of  the  day ;  but, 
like  Agassi  z,  he  had  no  time  to  make  money.  In  spite  of 
himself,  however,  his  fortune  accumulated, — another  instance 
of  the  frugality  and  prosperity  for  which  the  members  of 
the  Pepper  family  have  long  been  noted.  His  income  from 
his  profession  was  very  great, — perhaps  the  greatest  received 
by  any  physician  in  Philadelphia  in  his  time.  During  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  life  he  raised  his  fees  as  consultant  in 
cases  involving  much  travel  and  fatigue ;  but  such  cases 
multiplied  and  continued  to  multiply  far  beyond  his  strength 

524 


IN   MEMORIAM 

to  treat.  The  reason  for  raising  his  fees  lay  in  the  greater 
demand  which  his  civic,  educational,  and  scientific  enter- 
prises placed  upon  him.  He  was  subscribing  heavily  all 
these  years  to  guarantee  funds  in  support  of  the  University, 
the  Museums,  University  Extension,  and  many  forms  of 
public  charity,  and  he  found  it  necessary  to  increase  his 
income.  He  collected  only  to  give  away.  His  gratuitous 
practice  was  equal  to  the  entire  practice  of  many  a  well- 
established  physician,  and  on  no  occasion  was  he  known 
to  refuse  his  aid  merely  because  the  patient  was  poor.  To 
teachers  he  was  particularly  kind  and  generous.  Hundreds 
of  teachers  from  the  public  schools  and  from  colleges  and 
universities  consulted  him  professionally,  and  he  uniformly 
declined  to  receive  from  them  what  would  be  considered  a 
full  fee.  The  ruling  principle  of  his  life  was  one  which  few 
men  ever  think  of :  that  "  a  man  owes  to  his  generation  not 
merely  something  of  his  leisure,  but  the  utmost  services  of  his 
active  years."  The  University  of  Pennsylvania  as  it  stands 
to-day  is  his  creation.  The  system  of  museums  which  orna- 
ment Philadelphia  are  his  monument,  and  the  higher  educa- 
tional tone  of  the  community  is  one  of  the  results  of  his  life. 
Art,  science,  and  education,  each  for  its  own  sake,  was  the 
principle  which  inspired  his  efforts. 

The  characteristic  which  most  deeply  impressed  those  who 
knew  Dr.  Pepper  intimately  was  his  equanimity.  Tyrians 
and  Trojans  were  alike  to  him.  He  treated  the  whole  world 
as  his  friend ;  he  had  no  time  to  indulge  in  animosity, — the 
work  in  hand  was  too  exacting,  too  important.  He  utilized 
men  ;  locked  arms  with  friend  and  foe  and  went  on  his  way. 
He  often  praised,  seldom  blamed,  and  never  spoke  unkindly 
of  a  person  in  his  absence.  His  capacity  to  ignore  insult 
and  injury  was  phenomenal.     To  those  who  had  close  asso- 

5-25 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

ciation  with  him  very  many  years  he  seemed  at  times  callous 
to  criticism  or  indifferent  to  insult,  but  he  was  wise. 

He  knew  the  community  thoroughly,  its  limits,  its  re- 
sources. A  man's  likes  or  dislikes  were  respected,  but  his 
attitude  towards  him  as  an  individual  was  not  sufficient  to 
interfere  with  any  matter  in  hand.  His  supreme  effort  was 
to  secure  the  support  of  men  and  women  in  the  furtherance 
of  great  ideals.  Had  his  material  resources  been  inexhaust- 
ible, had  he  possessed  fabulous  wealth,  his  attitude  towards 
men  who  persisted  in  being  his  enemies  might  have  been 
different.  But  it  is  a  little  world,  though  greater  than  the 
world  in  which  he  moved,  and  he  could  not  afford  to  lose 
the  assistance  of  a  man  simply  because  that  man  was  his 
enemy. 

On  one  occasion  a  friend  who  was  passing  through  deep 
waters  came  to  him  for  counsel.  After  hearing  the  case, 
Dr.  Pepper  said,  briefly,  "  There  is  only  one  thing  to  do, — 
play  the  rules  of  the  game  to  the  end ;  you  can  do  no  more, 
and  you  may  do  less.  Make  the  other  man  responsible  for 
whatever  calamity  may  ensue  ;  your  conscience  will  be  clear, 
your  duty  done.  If  you  lose,  you  lose  like  a  philosopher." 
The  advice  he  gave  he  practised  himself  Had  he  been 
given  to  recognizing  petty  annoyances,  he  would  have 
fatigued  himself  with  trifles  and  failed  to  accomplish  his 
great  work.  Thus  it  came  to  be  that  he  had  a  way  in- 
describably attractive  and  masterful.  Men  surrendered  to 
his  coming ;  and  the  story  of  the  Mexican  vase  might  be 
told,  with  variations,  of  almost  every  day  of  his  active  life. 

His  manner  was  irresistible,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  he 
studied  well  the  old  motto,  "  Manners  make  the  man."  Cer- 
tainly in  manners  he  stood  alone ;  and  those  who  knew  him 
intimately  will  testify  to  this  isolation  as  the  sign  of  the  man. 

526 


IN   MEMORIAM 

His  manner  was  infectious,  and  many  a  young  medical 
student,  who  came  up  from  the  wilderness  uncouth  and 
bearish,  passed  through  a  process  of  civilization  during  the 
four  years  that  he  heard  Dr.  Pepper  lecture.  Even  his 
enemies  admitted  his  suavity  and  were  jealous  of  the  in- 
fluence which  his  manner  exerted.  Yet  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  never  knew  him  it  should  be  said  that  his  manners 
were  never  effeminate  or  obtrusive  in  any  way  ;  behind  them 
was  the  man,  the  large  spirit,  the  perceiving  soul,  the  power- 
ful usefulness. 

He  was  particularly  happy  in  all  his  public  addresses,  and 
notably  in  the  presidential  address  before  the  Pan-American 
Medical  Congress  at  Washington.  Dr.  Tyson  has  remarked 
that  the  address  won  the  hearts  of  the  delegates  from  the 
Latin- American  republics  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  wel- 
come which  Dr.  Pepper  received  when  he  attended  the 
second  meeting  of  the  Congress  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  His 
fluency  in  French  enabled  him  to  live  in  a  second  world,  and 
many  of  the  Mexican  and  South  American  delegates  who 
were  unable  to  speak  English  were  delighted  to  find  in  him 
one  who  could  converse  with  them  in  a  familiar  tongue. 
The  impression  which  he  made  at  various  times  upon  the 
Mexican  and  South  American  peoples  was  deep  and  lasting. 
He  sympathized  with  the  efforts  which  the  scientific  men  in 
South  America  were  making  to  improve  the  sanitary  con- 
dition of  its  cities  and  towns.  His  ideals  of  reciprocity, 
education,  art,  and  science  were  large,  brilliant,  and  attractive, 
and  awakened  all  the  passionate  admiration  of  these  Latin 
peoples.  The  news  of  his  death  came  to  them,  therefore, 
most  painfully,  and  they  mourned  him. 

Seldom,  indeed,  has  a  nation  risen  in  honor  of  the  dead 
as  the  high  officials,  the  savants,  and  the  people  of  Mexico 

527 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

rose  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Pepper.  In  the 
great  legislative  hall  of  the  Capitol  in  Mexico  the  memorial 
services  were  held.  The  vast  interior  was  illuminated  by- 
electric  lights  shaded  with  globes  of  green  glass,  and  by  a 
profusion  of  candles  in  the  great  central  chandelier.  The 
boxes  and  rows  of  seats  in  tlie  hall  were  draped  with  amber 
and  black  ;  torches  were  burning  in  the  balustrade.  On  the 
rostrum  and  all  over  the  platform  were  growing  plants,  the 
fan  palms  and  the  graceful  tropical  foliage  standing  out 
strikingly  against  the  amber  drapery  and  silken  folds  of  the 
American  and  Mexican  flags.  On  the  walls  on  either  side 
of  the  raised  platform  the  frescos  were  covered  with  pan- 
neaux  of  black  cloth,  against  which  were  placed  wreaths  and 
palm  branches.  On  the  cenotaph  was  inscribed  the  name 
Pepper,  and  tablets  were  placed  on  which  were  written  in 
Spanish : 

"  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Second  Pan-American  Med- 
ical Congress,  1896." 

"  The  Corps  of  Medical  Professors  of  the  Mexican  Republic, 
1898." 

At  seven  o'clock,  on  the  evening  of  the  twelfth  of  Sep- 
tember,^ President  Diaz  appeared  in  the  hall,  and  was  received 
with  military  honors  and  the  rendering  of  the  National 
anthem.  He  was  escorted  to  the  central  seat  on  the  rostrum. 
On  his  right  was  the  Minister  of  Justice  and  Education,  Hon- 
orable Jauquin  Barranda,  and  on  his  left  the  Governor  of  the 
Federal  District,  Honorable  Rafael  ReboUer.  A  little  lower 
and  on  the  right  was  seated  Dr.  Rafael  Livista,  and  on  the 
President's  left,  Dr.  Eduardo  Liceaga.     The  orchestra  then 


^Mexican  Herald  oi  September  15,  1898. 
528 


IN    MEMORIAM 

rendered  Svenden's  "Andante  Sostenuto,"  after  which  the 
Mexican  Minister  to  the  United  States,  Honorable  Matias 
Romeo,  deHvered  an  oration  in  memory  of  Dr.  Pepper. 

He  said  of  him  that  he  "  was  one  of  those  luminous  bodies 
that  visit  our  planet  in  human  form  to  do  good  to  their 
fellows,  to  serve  as  an  example  for  present  and  for  future 
generations,  and  to  elevate  and  improve  the  condition  of 
humanity."  He  spoke  in  praise  of  Dr.  Pepper's  establish- 
ment of  the  Commercial  Museums  in  Philadelphia, — that 
system  of  educational  and  industrial  opportunities  which 
have  met  with  so  prompt  and  sympathetic  response  in  the 
Latin-American  countries. 

Dr.  Porfirio  Parra,  in  behalf  of  the  College  of  Medicine 
in  Mexico,  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of  Dr.  Pepper's  services 
as  a  medical  man. 

"  For  such  an  one,"  said  he,  "  the  tomb  is  the  first  rung  to  the 
ladder  of  glory ;  death  is  the  beginning  of  life,  and  of  a  life  that 
never  ends.  He  was  good,  he  was  great,  he  was  wise,  and  thus  his 
name  will  not  perish,  but  will  be  written  in  letters  of  light  in  the 
book  of  those  who  die  not,  but  who  live  to  posterity." 

"  Mexico,"  said  Dr.  Ramirez,  "  is  a  civilized  country  and  a  lover 
of  progress,  and  recognizing  that  true  genius  has  no  country,  but 
belongs  to  humanity,  has  hastened  to  do  honor  to  the  illustrious 
dead  on  account  of  the  great  things  which  he  accomplished  in  life." 

Dr.  Mendizabal,  who  represented  the  National  Academy 
of  Mexico,  concluded  the  addresses : 

"  We  are  all  aware  of  the  great  merits  of  Dr.  Pepper,  and 
Mexican  physicians  are  under  an  obligation  to  him.  During  our 
stay  in  the  United  States,  at  the  time  of  the  first  Pan-American 
Medical  Congress,  we  were  the  recipients  of  a  thousand  courtesies 
and  a  thousand  marks  of  esteem  at  his  hands  ;  a  delicate  compli- 
34  529 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

ment  to  our  country,  for  which  we  were  deeply  indebted  to  him. 
This,  then,  is  the  reason  for  the  present  public  expression  of  grief, 
this  mark  of  reverence  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  the  illus- 
trious physician,  whose  country,  like  that  of  all  other  great  men, 
embraces  the  whole  world.  His  name  is  deserving  of  the  highest 
esteem.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  man  of  his  knowledge,  and, 
above  all,  one  possessing  his  activity. 

"  In  order  to  understand  his  worth,  to  see  him  was  sufficient ; 
to  note  his  spacious  forehead,  serene  but  lined  with  premature  fur- 
rows ;  the  pale,  transparent  skin,  so  becoming  a  man  devoting  his 
whole  time  to  study  j  the  glance,  calm  and  gentle  but  penetrating, 
as  if  he  would  read  the  soul  of  him  who  addressed  him.  He  was 
a  man  of  easy,  simple,  and  eloquent  speech ;  calm  in  his  reflections 
and  of  great  activity  in  his  work.  His  name  was  a  title  of  no- 
bility, for  he  was  the  son  of  an  eminent  physician  of  Philadelphia 
also.  He  was  not  a  vain  man,  but  had  the  pride  of  one  who 
knows  what  he  is  worth.  At  heart  he  was  humble,  and  his  humility 
explains  how  his  great  learning  led  him  to  sacrifice  himself  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  In  temperament  he  was  manly  and  energetic, 
without  which  qualities  great  virtues  are  impossible,  and  in  the  ab- 
sence of  which  no  man  can  fulfil  a  high  calling  on  earth.  He  was 
possessed  of  the  great  quality  which  is  indispensable  to  the  acquire- 
ment of  all  true  knowledge, — distrust  of  what  knowledge  he  really 
had.  He  belonged  to  that  privileged  group  of  men  of  whom  Pascal 
speaks,  who,  having  learned  all  that  man  is  capable  of  knowing, 
realize  that  they  know  nothing. 

"  He  received  as  his  recompense  the  noblest  reward  that  science 
has  to  bestow, — namely,  the  pleasure  of  teaching  those  who  do  not 
know.  He  spoke  with  correctness  and  propriety  the  language  of 
Shakespeare,  which  was  his  mother-tongue,  as  he  spoke  that  of 
Horace,  Moliere,  and  Schiller.  His  great  learning  did  not  prevent 
tjis  being  communicative,  sociable,  and  a  most  charming  converser. 
His  manner  was  affable,  his  actions  and  society  delicate  and  refined. 
Those  who  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  this  great  man  personally 

530 


IN    MEMORIAM 

will  note  that  I  have  drawn  no  imaginary  character,  but  one  that  is 
true  and  lifelike,  a  mere  hint  at  what  he  was  in  reality." 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  November  a  memorial  service  was 
held  in  the  chapel  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  at 
which  addresses  in  his  honor  were  made  by  the  representa- 
tives of  the  institutions  with  which  he  had  been  associated. 
The  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  paid  a  tribute  to  his 
labors  for  the  advancement  of  scientific  and  educational  insti- 
tutions in  the  State.  The  eminent  physician  and  author  Dr. 
S.  Weir  Mitchell  spoke  on  behalf  of  the  University  Trustees. 
Dr.  James  Tyson  represented  the  Medical  Faculty  of  the 
University  and  the  College  of  Physicians ;  General  Isaac  J. 
Wistar,  the  founder  of  the  Wistar  Institute,  spoke  feelingly 
of  the  work  of  Dr.  Pepper  in  connection  with  that  institu- 
tion, and  particularly  of  his  labors  to  advance  the  cause  of 
biological  science.  Mr.  Daniel  Baugh  told  of  Dr.  Pepper's 
services  in  founding  the  Department  of  Archaeology  and  its 
Museum  of  Science  and  Art.  Hampton  L.  Carson,  Esq., 
of  the  Law  Faculty,  spoke  of  the  General  Alumni  Society 
of  the  University. 

"  He  dreamed  of  a  new  Philadelphia,"  said  Mr.  Carson.  "  It 
was  not  the  historic  city  which  most  he  loved,  it  was  the  city  of  the 
future ;  and  can  he  who  has  read  his  address  on  Franklin  doubt  that 
in  his  character  there  were  many  of  the  qualities  which  belong  to 
the  most  practical  and  far-seeing  of  Americans  ?  He  dreamed  of 
a  city  greater  than  any  Penn  had  planned,  with  nobler  charities  and 
vaster  public  works  than  Franklin  had  fancied  ;  a  city  richer  in  hos- 
pitals, in  schools,  in  institutions  of  learning,  in  libraries,  in  art,  in 
commerce,  and  in  public  works.  Into  the  comprehensive  schemes 
ot  foresighted  men  he  entered  with  the  ease  of  one  accustomed  to 
plans  of  magnitude.  On  the  Mayor,  on  Councils,  on  private  citi- 
zens, nay,  on  Presidents  and  their  Cabinets,  and  Congress,  he  cast 

531 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

a  spell,  converting  that  which  was  local  into  that  which  was  na- 
tional and  might  become  international." 

The  American  Philosophical  Society  was  represented  by 
its  president,  the  venerable  Frederick  Fraley.  The  Director 
of  the  Philadelphia  Commercial  Museums,  Dr.  William  P. 
Wilson,  recited  Dr.  Pepper's  relations  with  that  great  system 
of  industrial  and  economic  education.  The  Free  Library 
was  represented  by  its  Librarian,  Mr.  John  Thomson ;  and 
the  Mayor  of  the  city,  Honorable  Charles  F.  Warwick,  paid 
a  true  and  touching  tribute  to  Dr.  Pepper's  long  and  arduous 
services  to  advance  the  health,  beauty,  and  prosperity  of  his 
native  city.^ 

Perhaps  of  greater  significance  was  the  tribute  which  was 
paid  less  formally.  With  the  men  of  affairs  in  Philadelphia 
Dr.  Pepper  had  long  been  intimate  and  influential. 

"  It  is  difficult/'  wrote  Mr.  William  J.  Latta,  "  for  Dr.  Pepper's 
contemporaries  to  place  a  proper  estimate  upon  his  usefulness.  As 
later  generations  reap  the  benefit  of  the  public  movements  of  which 
he  was  the  principal  promoter,  the  value  of  his  efforts  will  be  more 
correctly  estimated.  One  of  his  characteristics  was  the  reaching  out 
for  work  to  be  done  and  for  men  to  do  it.  The  keenness  of  his 
mind  in  discovering  the  practical  needs  of  the  people  and  the  means 
of  supplying  them  was  only  equalled  by  his  wonderful  capacity  for 
getting  about  him  the  men  who  could  accomplish  the  desired  results. 
His  very  presence  was  stimulating ;  his  activity  was  contagious.  In 
laying  out  his  plans  he  looked  years  ahead.  No  detail  was  too 
trifling,  no  responsibility  too  remote  to  be  overlooked.  Both  in  his 
plans  for  a  Free  Library  system  and  for  the  establishment  of  the 
Philadelphia  Museums  he  displayed  not  only  genius  in  conception 


*  The  addresses  on  this  occasion  were  collected  and  published  in 
pamphlet  form. 

532 


IN    MEMORIAM 

but  a  business  instinct  of  high  order.  The  delicate  tact  with  which 
he  handled  men  and  faced  difficulties  was  little  short  of  phenomenal. 
He  had  abundant  faith  and  ability,  and  the  two  combined  made  an 
irresistible  force  which  simply  commanded  success,  and  it  came. 
His  life  was  an  inspiration."  ^ 

"  He  possessed  three  very  prominent  characteristics  :  *  the  power 
of  adapting  himself  to  every  condition,  personal  magnetism,  and 
courage.  He  was  by  nature  a  great  business  man,  a  master  of  de- 
tails whatever  the  matter  on  hand  might  be.  He  was  absolutely 
unselfish.  He  led  in  every  subscription  list  which  he  presented  to 
others  ;  and  no  matter  what  might  be  the  attitude  towards  the  enter- 
prise, he  never  had  a  disagreeable  word  about  any  man.  It  was 
practically  impossible  to  resist  his  requests,  whether  for  money  or 
influence.  Unlike  most  men  of  his  quality,  he  had  the  courage  to 
use  all  the  means  necessary  to  accomplish  his  ends.  He  never 
wasted  time  or  for  a  moment  forgot  his  identity.  He  was  perfectly 
at  home  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  and  at  once  made 
himself  felt,  and  took  the  lead  in  whatever  company  he  found 
himself. 

"  All  this  was  done  with  the  assent  and  usually  hearty  acqui- 
escence of  his  associates ;  no  one  felt  ignored  or  disposed  to  antag- 
onize. It  was  a  wonderful  combination  of  qualities  which  made 
him  for  so  many  years  easily  the  foremost  man  in  Philadelphia.  He 
was  a  man  among  men,  a  natural  leader,  a  wise  counsellor,  and  he 
was  successful  in  a  far  greater  proportion  of  large  undertakings  than 
are  most  eminent  men.  There  was  no  position  in  life  which  he 
could  not  have  filled  respectably,  and  most  positions  he  would  have 
filled  with  rare  success." 

Commenting  on  Dr.  Pepper,  ex-Senator  George  F.  Ed- 
munds, who  knew  him  intimately,  and  who  stood  perhaps 

'  MS.  letter,  January  25,  1 900. 

*  Author's  conversation  with   Mr.  Thomas   Dolan,  March   17, 
1900. 

533 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

closer  to  him  as  counsellor  and  guide  in  public  questions 
than  any  other  friend,  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  had  never 
known  a  man  whose  mind  was  of  a  higher  order.  His  powers 
of  analysis  were  marvellous,  his  logic  swift  and  sure,  his 
willingness  and  zeal  to  learn  the  facts  in  the  case  unlimited. 
All  these  powers  lay  back  of  his  phenomenal  success  as  a 
diagnostician ;  yet  the  workings  of  his  mind  were  equally 
strong  when  directed  to  other  than  medical  questions.  He 
knew  human  nature  and  read  men  with  unerring  accuracy, 
and  consequently  his  failures  were  few,  his  successes  many.^ 

"  He  had  a  most  affectionate  disposition,"  writes  a  relative ; 
"  those  whom  he  loved  he  loved  deeply.  With  them  he  was  as 
demonstrative  as  a  boy.  Even  after  a  separation  of  a  day  or  two 
he  never  failed  to  greet  me  literally  with  open  arms — holding  me 
close  to  his  breast  for  a  minute  without  speaking  and  kissing  my 
forehead  as  a  parent  kisses  a  child.  It  was  so  with  all  his  imme- 
diate family — and  in  his  case  the  word  '  immediate '  seemed  to  have 
a  larger  signification  than  with  most  men.  Not  only  towards  his 
wife  and  mother  and  sister  and  children  and  me, — whom  he  always 
treated  as  a  son, — but  towards  all  his  nephews  and  nieces,  towards  his 
brothers-in-law,  Mr.  Leonard  and  Mr.  Wright,  he  showed  the  same 
exuberance  of  affection.  Indeed,  I  never  saw  any  one,  man  or 
woman,  who  could  resist  him  if  he  really  made  up  his  mind  to  win 
one's  affection  or  friendship.  He  seemed  to  know  instinctively  the 
key  with  which  to  unlock  the  heart  of  those  with  whom  he  came 
in  contact.  A  man  with  such  a  gift  is  always  suspected  of  deliber- 
ately using  it  to  accomplish  his  own  ends  without  himself  experi- 
encing any  genuine  emotion. 

"  He  was  apt  to  be  charged  with  insincerity.  Close  observation 
convinced  me  that  no  such  charge  could  with  justice  be  preferred 


*  Author's  conversation  with   Honorable   George  F.  Edmunds, 
April  19,  1900. 

534 


IN   MEMORIAM 

against  him.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  he  did  not  accomplish  great 
results  by  his  courtesy  to  people  whom  he  cared  nothing  about.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  he  ever  lost  an  opportunity  to  deal  tactfully 
with  persons  whom  he  did  not  like.  I  do  mean,  however,  that  all 
his  manifestations  of  friendship  and  affection  were  wholly  genuine. 
His  affections  in  such  cases  were  really  enkindled.  The  secret  of 
his  attractiveness  was  the  simple  fact  that  he  himself  felt  deeply, 
and  that  for  the  affection  which  he  craved  he  was  always  ready  to 
give  in  exchange  the  devotion  of  which  only  such  natures  as  his 
are  capable."  ^ 

"  It  is  pleasant  to  hope,"  remarked  Dr.  Horace  Howard  Furness, 
when  a  year  later  he  presented  to  the  American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, on  behalf  of  the  contributing  members,  the  portrait  of  Dr. 
Pepper,  "  it  is  pleasant  to  hope  that  during  his  lifetime  Dr.  Pepper 
was  at  least  faintly  conscious  that  his  influence  for  good  was  thus 
wide-spread,  and  that  among  his  fellow-citizens  he  had  become  the 
representative  of  great  educational  and  civic  movements.  .  .  .  This 
is  not  an  occasion  for  eulogy,  nor  have  I  any  capacity  for  analyzing 
character  (who  can  analyze  his  own  ?),  but  by  one  noteworthy  ele- 
ment in  Dr.  Pepper's  temperament  I  was  always  impressed,  and  this 
is  a  sense  of  proportion.  He  had  the  faculty  of  differentiating 
values.  He  was  never  astray  among  the  important  and  the  unim- 
portant. His  perspective  was  always  true.  At  a  glance  he  distin- 
guished the  permanent  and  the  transitory.  Therefore  it  is  that  the 
institutions  with  which  he  was  connected  or  which  he  guided  will 
for  many  a  year  to  come  follow  out  the  lines  which  he  in  his  clear- 
sighted wisdom  laid  down.   .   .   . 

"  Ambition  is  proverbially  selfish,  and  that  he  was  ambitious  we 
all  know.  But  herein  was  almost  his  crowning  quality.  His  am- 
bition was  never  for  himself.  If  he  were  exacting  and  determined 
in  the  pursuit  of  his  ambition,  it  was  not  for  his  own  ends.  His 
ambition  was  set  in  the  attainment  of  loftier  planes  for  the  institu- 


'  MS.,  May  lo,  1900. 

535 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

tions  and  for  the  community  for  which  he  toiled  and  planned. 
Rarely  shall  we  find  the  man  more  thoroughly,  utterly  unselfish 
than  he.  To  the  reflex  effect  upon  himself  or  his  fortunes  of  any 
course  which  he  deemed  of  moment,  I  think  he  gave  never  a  single 
thought.  That  a  man  of  as  forceful  a  character  should  meet  with 
opposition  and  even  detraction  is  inevitable.  But  we  have  solemn 
words  of  warning  ringing  in  our  ears  :  '  Woe  unto  you  when  all 
men  speak  well  of  you  !'  Therein  is  to  be  found  our  consolation 
and  his  ever-present  balm."  ' 

During  the  winter  of  1894  Dr.  Pepper  had  made  plans  to 
close  the  scholastic  year  of  the  University  by  exercises  ot 
more  than  usual  solemnity.  Commencement  Day  should 
not  only  bring  his  administration  to  an  end,  but  it  should 
round  out  the  formative  period  of  the  University.  He  felt 
that  the  idea  which  Benjamin  Franklin  had  outlined  for  the 
University  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  before,  and  to  the 
principal  application  of  which  Dr.  Pepper  had  devoted  his 
life,  had  been  fairly  planted.  The  University  now  maintained 
close  relations  with  the  community  in  the  midst  of  which  it 
stood. 

An  era  of  development  would  follow  this  creative  period, 
and,  as  a  mark  of  things  done  and  as  an  expression  of  a 
hope  for  the  future.  Dr.  Pepper  earnestly  desired  to   com- 


^  At  my  request  Dr.  Furness  sent  me  the  manuscript  of  his  elo- 
quent address  from  which  I  have  made  the  above  quotation.  It  is 
gratifying  to  me  to  have  the  support  of  his  judgment  concerning 
the  permanent  influence  of  Dr.  Pepper's  wisdom  in  the  institutions 
with  which  he  was  connected  or  which  he  guided.  My  manuscript 
of  the  life  of  Dr.  Pepper  was  completed  before  the  above  address  was 
delivered,  and  it  is  with  regret  that  I  find  myself  prevented  from 
quoting  the  address  in  full.  It  is  to  be  published,  I  understand,  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 

536 


IN    MEMORIAM 

memorate  the  name  and  work  of  Franklin  by  erecting  a 
statue  to  his  memory,  and  unveiling  it  during  this  last  Com- 
mencement Week.  He  had  become  greatly  interested  in  the 
statue  of  Franklin  which  stood  at  the  entrance  of  the  Elec- 
trical Building  at  the  Columbian  Exposition.  It  was  obtained 
for  the  University,  and  for  a  time  Dr.  Pepper  had  high  hopes 
that  it  would  be  cast  in  bronze.^  The  Provost's  preparations 
for  Commencement  week,  1894,  suggested  to  some  of  his 
friends  and  co-workers  the  thought  of  a  personal  testimonial 
to  him,  to  whose  creative  genius  the  University,  and,  indeed, 
the  whole  community,  owed  so  much.  The  suggestion  took 
form,  as  already  narrated,  under  the  management  of  a  Testi- 
monial Committee,^  which  arranged  with  Mr.  Carl  Bitter  for 
a  bronze  statue  of  Dr.  Pepper,  with  the  understanding  that  it 
should  be  designed  of  a  size  and  material  suitable  for  a  place 
on  the  University  grounds.  It  was  also  stipulated  that  the 
bust  study  should  be  ready  for  presentation  at  the  Commence- 
ment, on  June  10,  1894.  Dr.  Horace  Howard  Furness  was 
invited  to  deliver  the  presentation  address.  His  masterly 
oration  on  that  occasion  is  already  familiar  to  the  reader,^  as 
are  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  delivered. 

As  in  eloquent  speech  he  recited  the  story  of  the  trans- 
formation of  the  University  in  scope  and  character  under  the 
retiring  Provost,  during  his  administration  of  only  thirteen 
years,  it  seemed  almost  incredible  that  one  man  could  have 
accomplished  so  much.  The  difficulty  in  obtaining  sittings 
from  Dr.  Pepper  caused  serious  delay  in  the  completion  of 
the  statue,  and  it  was  not  until  1896  that  it  was  finally  ac- 


'  A  bronze  cast  would  have  cost  at  least  ;^20,ooo.      But  see,  as 
to  the  fate  of  the  statue,  note,  pp.  332-333. 

'See  p.  331,  ante.  ^See  pp.  333-348. 

537 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

cepted  by  the  committee  in  charge,  after  it  had  been  critically 
examined  and  approved.  The  opinion  of  the  eminent  artist 
Mr.  John  La  Farge  seemed  of  special  value,  as  being  that  of 
not  only  an  art  expert,  but  of  one  connected  with  Dr.  Pepper. 
and  one,  therefore,  familiar  with  his  moods  and  attitudes.' 
In  1896  the  model  was  cast  in  bronze,  and  in  the  following 
winter,  at  the  request  of  the  artist,  it  was  placed  on  exhibi- 
tion at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  in  Phila- 
delphia. Unfortunately,  it  was  placed  on  too  low  a  pedestal, 
and  therefore  appeared  at  a  disadvantage. 

Some  time  elapsed  before  the  drawings  for  the  bronze 
panels  intended  for  either  side  of  the  granite  pedestal,  de- 
signed by  Mr.  Leigh  Hunt,  were  perfectly  satisfactory  to 
himself  and  to  those  in  charge.  In  the  spring  of  1 896  the 
Trustees  of  the  University  granted  to  the  committee  the 
centre  of  the  plot  of  ground  reserved  on  the  plans  of  the 
Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  as  a  site  on  which  to 
erect  the  statue.^  Mr.  Bitter's  drawings  for  the  bronze  side- 
panels  were  finally  accepted  in  June,  only  a  short  time  be- 
fore Dr.  Pepper's  death.  By  that  event  the  statue  became  a 
memorial  to  a  devoted  life  ungrudgingly  sacrificed  in  the  pro- 
motion of  the  public  welfare. 

During  the  progress  of  the  work  on  the  pedestal  the  new 
building  of  the  Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  of  the 
University,  the  last  effort  of  Dr.  Pepper's  life,  was  approach- 
ing completion,  and  it  seemed  highly  appropriate  to  link  the 
formal  presentation  of  the  statue  with  the  official  transfer  of 
this  imposing  edifice  to  the  Trustees,  and  thus  make  the 
occasion  one  great  tribute  to  the  late  Provost.     The  fact  that 


'  Mrs.  Pepper  and  Mrs.  La  Farge  were  sisters. 
'The  southwest  corner  of  Thirty-third  and  Spruce  Streets. 

538 


STATUE    OF    WILLIAM     PEPPER,    UNIVERSITY     OF     PENNSYLVANIA 


IN    MEMORIAM 

the  main  hall  of  the  structure  about  to  be  dedicated  had 
been  erected  by  him  and  bore  his  name  added  to  the  appro- 
priateness of  this  thought.  The  suggestion  was  warmly 
received,  and  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Museum 
arranged  a  program  of  ceremonies  for  the  opening  of  the 
building,  and  consulted  with  Mrs.  Pepper  in  order  to  learn 
her  wishes  respecting  details.  She  signified  her  intention 
of  selecting  this  occasion  to  announce  a  gift  to  the  Uni- 
versity, as  an  endowment  for  the  hall  in  the  Free  Museum 
of  Science  and  Art,  known  as  The  William  Pepper  Hall. 
This  added  another  lasting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a 
great  man  and  most  fittingly  attached  it  to  the  foundation, 
the  future  of  which  her  distinguished  husband  by  a  formal 
expression  dated  only  a  short  time  before  his  death  had 
sought  to  secure. 

The  twentieth  of  December,  1 899,  was  the  day  fixed  upon 
for  the  ceremonies.  On  that  day  the  fully  equipped  building 
and  its  priceless  collection  should  be  officially  transferred,  the 
statue  of  Dr.  Pepper  should  be  unveiled  and  presented  to 
the  Trustees  of  the  University,  and  the  announcement  of  the 
endowment  of  The  William  Pepper  Hall  by  Mrs.  Pepper 
should  be  formally  made.  The  day  was  propitious,  and  a 
large  company  of  representative  men  and  women  assembled 
in  the  Widener  Lecture  Hall  to  witness  the  exercises.  Ab- 
sent friends  sent  wreaths  and  flowers  to  be  laid  at  the  foot  of 
the  statue,  which  could  be  seen  from  the  windows  of  the 
Lecture  Hall. 

The  ceremonies  in  Widener  Hall  opened  with  the  address 
of  the  president,  Mr.  Daniel  Baugh,  who  recited  the  history 
of  the  Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  and  of  Dr.  Pepper's 
services  in  connection  with  it.  Ex-Senator  Edmunds  then 
presented  the  statue  to  the  University  authorities,  and  con- 

539 


WILLIAM    PEPPER 

eluded  with   the   announcement  of  Mrs.   Pepper's  gift  of 
^50,000  to  the  Museum. 

Success  never  disturbed  Dr.  Pepper,  but  he  made  elaborate 
preparations  against  defeat.  Here  he  was  truly  Napoleonic. 
No  detail  was  too  wearisome,  no  person  too  obscure  if  neces- 
sary to  success.  To  the  men  who  knew  he  gave  closest  atten- 
tion. Herein  lay  the  secret  of  his  success.  His  instinct  made 
human  nature  clear  to  him,  and  his  tact  taught  him  to  let 
every  man  play  his  part.  No  characteristic  of  this  extraor- 
dinary man  was  more  pronounced  than  his  genius  for  treating 
enemies  like  friends.  Seldom  has  a  man  been  born  into  the 
world  so  free  from  jealousy,  envy,  hatred,  or  malice.  So 
great  was  the  universality  of  his  genius  that  men  were  per- 
suaded that  he  was  strongest  at  whatever  he  undertook. 

If  it  can  be  said  that  he  had  one  ruling  ideal  in  life,  it  was 
the  ideal  University, — not  as  that  word  is  commonly  under- 
stood, but  in  its  broad  and  liberal  meaning.  In  so  far  as 
in  him  lay  he  strove  to  establish  in  his  native  city  a  group 
of  opportunities  permanent  and  attractive :  the  system  of 
museums,  the  schools,  and  the  library  which  forever  will  be 
associated  with  his  name.  Looking  minutely  into  the  work 
which  he  did  and  the  plans  which  he  wrought  out,  one 
easily  arrives  at  the  opinion  that  he  anticipated  the  improve- 
ments which  for  a  century  to  come  are  likely  to  distinguish 
the  institutions  with  which  his  name  is  associated. 

The  man  thus  honored  lives  in  the  memory  of  the  world. 
His  work  remains.  Future  generations  will  appreciate  more 
correctly  than  do  we  the  value  of  his  labors  for  mankind. 
To  us  who  knew  him  has  fallen  the  duty  of  handing  down 
as  best  we  can  what  we  ourselves  knew  concerning  him. 
No  man  ever  received  a  larger  devotion  or  a  nobler  tribute 
from  lifelong  associates,  and  no  co-workers  ever  possessed 

540 


USUmi  VBR  tQLUm'lKG  lIHlVa^ltV  Di^aAi^lkiHslv 

Ml-Utl-iT       till?  BlSU'AimvffiKT  QFARCKHICTI'KL: 

kitmSfiS    VKTS  WlST/oi?;  llMTltrrE  €FAN.«'CL\i>' 
_^  AKD  BIOLQCY  .i 


':  SCtEVJCE  A^ii&  AP 

D£LPHiAM«S.fe8MS 


iiHii 


jj^^^^^^j^i  ■  ^.,niui: 


TABLET  ON  PEDESTAL  OF  THE  PEPPER  STATUE 


IN    MEMORIAM 

a  more  faithful  or  loving  friend.  He  was  a  masterful  man, 
and  he  used  men  as  a  great  soldier  uses  his  army,  but,  like 
the  great  soldier,  he  asked  no  service  or  sacrifice  which  he  him- 
self would  not  give.  His  life  was  a  campaign  not  in  Altruria 
but  in  altruism.  "  These  glimpses  of  the  moon,"  as  the 
greatest  of  poets  describes  our  earth,  held  him  for  awhile 
amidst  petty  jealousies  and  scrambles  for  place  and  fortune, 
but  amidst  the  contest  and  struggle  he  lived  serene ;  the 
atmosphere  of  his  world  was  an  empire  of  ideas. 

The  tribute  paid  to  his  memory  in  the  City  of  Mexico  by 
the  savants  of  the  republic  and  the  leaders  of  its  government 
was  such  as  is  occasionally  paid  to  princes  of  the  blood  or 
dignitaries  of  the  church.  It  was  perhaps  a  more  impressive 
memorial  than  was  held  in  his  native  city.  Here  the  mourn- 
ers went  about  the  streets  silently,  for  they  knew  that  the 
foremost  citizen  was  dead.  For  many  years  some  will  sur- 
vive who  knew  him  and  who  came  sufficiently  near  him  to 
understand  his  character.  They  will  not  forget  his  animating 
smile,  his  swift  intellection,  his  sound  judgment,  his  careful 
speech,  and  his  devoted  friendship.  His  friends  erected  a 
monument  to  him  while  he  was  yet  living,  but  his  works 
will  outlast  the  bronze  figure  which  now  stands  silent  amid 
the  creations  of  his  mind. 


541 


[NDEX 


ii 


INDEX 


Abbott,  C.  C,  Dr.,  446 

Academy   of   Natural   Sciences,   62, 

273,  274 
Adams,  Charles   Kendall,   115 
Agnew,  D.   Hayes,  Dr.,  33,  37,  57, 

257-261,  293 
Allen,  George,  Professor,  25,  28,  30, 

37 
Allen,  Harrison,  Professor,  203 
Almshouse    (Blockley),   181    (note), 

182 
Almshouse    Farm    (Blockley),    163, 

166,  179,  180,  436 
American  Academy  of  Political  and 

Social  Science,  243,  299 
American     Climatological     Associa- 
tion, 99 
American    Journal   of   the    Medical 

Sciences  (Hays's  Journal),  62,  64, 

68,  74,  80,  99 
American  Medical  Association,  113 
American   Neurological   Association, 

62 
.American  Philosophical  Society,  40, 

63 
Apple,  Thomas  G.,  225 
Archaeological  Association,  314,  315 
Arnold,  Matthew,  210-213 
Association  of  American  Physicians, 

109,  110 
Association  of  Colleges,  240,  266 
Athletic  Association,  193,  206,  240 
Auxiliary  Department  of  Medicine, 

187 


Bache,  Richard,  71 
Sanderson,  F.  M.,  Dr.,  127 
35 


Barnwell,  James  G.,  208 
Barranda,  Jauquin,  Hon.,  528 
Baugh,  Daniel,  430,  452,  519,  531 
Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  276 
Bennett,  J.  R.,  Colonel,  302,  307 
Biddle,  Algernon  Sydney,  293,  311 
Biddle,  Arthur,  425 
Biddle,  George,  Memorial  Law  Li- 
brary, 246 
Biddle,  George  W.,  64 
Billings,  John  S.,  Dr.,  132,  134,  187, 

295 
Binney,  Horace,  22 
Biological  School,  203 
Bispham,  George  Tucker,  193 
Bitter,  Karl,  538 
Blaine,  James  G.,  415 
Blanchard,  Joseph  N.,  Rev.,  519 
Bliss,  Cornelius  B.,  Hon.,  417 
Blockley  (see  Almshouse  Farm,  and 

Philadelphia  Hospital) 
Board  of  Education,  372,  373,  375, 

376,  395,  396,  475 
Bowditch,  Henry  I.,  Dr.,  96,  97,  114 
Brinley,  Charles  A.,  389,  390,  391 
Brinton,  Daniel  G.,  Dr.,  425,  429 
Browne,  Nathaniel  B.,  163 
Brunetifere,  M.,  492 
Burk,  Jesse  Y.,  Rev.,  26  (note),  31 

(note),  164  (and  Preface) 
Burlington,  23  (note) 
Burnham,  George,  385 


Carson,  Hampton  L.,  519,  531 
Carson,  Joseph,  Dr.,  33 
Centennial  Exhibition,  71-73 
Centennial  Medical  Commission,  70 


545 


INDEX 


Centennial  of  the  Constitution,  2^5, 

226,  233-239 
Central   Committee  of  the  Alumni, 

192 
Central  Heat  and  Light  Station,  298 
Chalfant,  Thomas,  57 
Charitable  Schools,  169 
Charity  Ball,  81,  82 
Civic  Club,  475,  476 
Clark,  C.  H.,  445 
Clark,  Edward  H.,  519 
Clark,  E.  W.,  424,  445 
Clarke,  Hugh  A,,  Professor,  209 
Cleveland  Medical  Society,  121 
Coleridge,  Lord  Chief  Justice,  194 
College  Association,  266 
College    of    Physicians,     151     (and 

Preface) 
Congress    (see  National  University; 

Philadelphia  Museumis),  400 
Congress    of    American    Physicians 

and  Surgeons,  115 
Conrad,  John,  Dr.,  36 
Constitutional  Convention,  56,  57 
Copp^e,  Professor,  25,  28,  29,  157 
Councils,  City,  50,  51,  52,  53,  56,  165, 

166,   180,  270,  371,  373,  374,  376, 

378,  398,  399,  407,  439,  498,  508, 

509 
Curtis,  George  William,  225 
Cushing,  Frank  H.,  447 

D 

Dawson,  Sir  William,  199 
Deaver,  John  B.,  Dr.,  121 
Delano,  Eugene,  290 
Dental  School,  173,  174,  188,  246,  280 
Department  of  Philosophy,  191,  244 
Diaz,  President,  123,  124,  489,  528 
Doane,  William  Croswell,  Rt.  Rev., 

117 
Dolan,  Thomas,  10 
Dolley,  Charles  S.,  Dr.,  243 
Drake,  Daniel,  Dr.,  122,  123 
Drexel,  A.  J.,  464 


E 


Edmunds,  George  F.,  Hon.,  316,  417, 
496,  519,  533,  534,  539  (and  Pref- 
ace) 

Education  (see  under  William  Pep- 
per, and  University,  and  Chapters 
I.-VI.  of  Part  II.) 

Elkins,  William  L.,  481 

Engineering  Laboratory,  298 

Evarts,  William  M.,  74 


Faires,  Dr.,  25 

Fairy  Hill,  24,  519 

Fellowships,  192,  201,  202 

Flinders,  W.  M.,  448 

Forrest,  Edwin,  54 

Fox,  Daniel  M.,  166 

Fraley,  Frederick,  160,  162,  519,  533 

Franklin  and  Marshall  College,  216, 

224 
Franklin,    Benjamin,    Dr.,    71,    216, 

224 
Franklin,  Deborah,  71 
Franklin,  Sarah,  71 
Frazer,  Professor,  25 
Frothingham,  Arthur  L.,  448 
Furness,  Frank,  270 
Furness,  Horace  Howard,  110,  330, 

333-348,  535,  537  (and  Preface) 

G 
Gairdner,  W.,  Dr.,  127-129,  141 
Garfield,  James  A.,  178 
Gates,  James  R.,  371 
Gibson,  Henry  C,  59,  187,  279,  297 
Girls'  Normal  School,  395 
Goodwin,  Daniel  R.,  D.D.,  Provost, 

25,  29,  157,  164 
Graduate  School   for  Women,  302- 

308 
Greek  play,  209 

Greenman,  Milton  J.,  Dr.,  243,  299 
Griffith,  J.  P.  Crozer,  Dr.,  109 


546 


INDEX 


Gross,  S.  D.,  Dr.,  40 
Gymnasium,  312,  313 

H 

Hall,  the  William  Pepper,  539,  540 
Hare,  Charles  W.,  188 
Harris,  W.  T.,  Hon.,  317 
Harrison,  Charles  C,  389,  477 
Harrison,  George  L.,  67 
Hartranft,  John  F.,  Governor,  58 
Hearst,  Mrs.   Phoebe,  445,  447,  448, 

488,  511 
Henderson,  C.  Hanford,  Dr.,  387 
Henderson,  George,  386 
Hilprecht,    H.    V.,    Professor,    145, 

423,  446 
Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania, 

10 
Hodge,  Hugh  L.,  Dr.,  33 
Holland,  Sir  Henry,  455 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  19,  114 
Horner,  Dr.,  39 
Houston,  Samuel  F.,  441 
Howard,  R.  V.,  Dr.,  198 
Hoyt,  Henry  M.,  Hon.,  177 
Huidekoper,  Rush  S.,  Dr.,  190 
Hunt,  Leigh,  538 
Hygiene,  Laboratorj^  of,  295 
Hygiene,  School  of,  277-279 


International  Commercial  Congress, 

417,  418 
International  Medical  Congress,  115 
International  Medical  Magazine,  115 


Jackson,  Francis  A.,  Professor,  25, 

28,  30,  272 
Jackson,  Samuel,  Dr.,  33 
James,   Edmund  J.,   Professor,  387, 

388,  390 
Jastrow,  Morris,  Professor,  272 


Jayne,   Horace,   Dr.,   203,  242,  364- 

366,  385  (and  Preface) 
Johnston,  Alexander,  Professor,  146 
Journal    of    the    American    Medical 

Association,  108 

K 

Kendall,  E.  Otis,  Professor,  25,  30 
King,  Samuel  J.,  179 
Kings  County  Medical  Association, 
125 

L 

La  Farge,  John,  538 

Landis,  Charles  K.,  299 

Latta,  William  J.,  383,  519,  532-533 

Lavista,  Rafael,  Dr.,  528 

Law  School,  188,  189,  246,  279,  280, 
311 

Lea,  Henry  C,  277-279,  295-297 

Legislature,  Pennsylvania,  47,  48,  49, 
50,  55,  56,  57,  58,  437 

Leidy,  Joseph,  Dr.,  33,  110-113,  203 

Leonard,  James  B.,  385  (and  Pref- 
ace) 

Leonard,  Mrs.  James  B.,  510 

Leslie,  J.  P.,  40 

Library  Building,  269 

Library,  the  Free,  of  Philadelphia, 
369-384 

Library,  University,  208 

Liceaga,  Eduardo,  Dr.,  528 

Li  Hung  Chang,  491 

Lincoln  Institution,  41 

Loan  Bill,  377,  378,  381,  382,  493, 
499,  502,  503,  507,  508,  511 

London  Lancet,  63 

Low,  Seth,  Hon.,  282,  417 


M 
MacAlister,  James,  200 
Macauley,  Francis  C,  424 
MacKinder,  H.  J.,  388 
i    Marine  I/aboratory,  299 
547 


INDEX 


McElroy,  John  G.  R.,  Professor, 
272,  293 

McGill  University,  198,  199 

McKinley,  William,  President,  414, 
415,  493,  496 

McMichael,  Morton,  43 

Medical  Bulletin,  102 

Medical  Club  of  Philadelphia,  121 

Medical  News,  329 

Medical  School,  27,  33,  34,  174,  184, 
186,  187,  188,  207,  245,  246,  280, 
309 

Medical  and  Surgical  Reporter,  80, 
82 

Medical  writings  {see  under  Pepper, 
WiUiam) 

Meigs,  J.  Forsj-th,  Dr.,  61,  63,  64 

Mendizabal,  Dr.,  529 

Middleton-Goldsmith  lectures,  109 

Miles,  Frederick  B.,  385,  386  (and 
Preface) 

Mississippi  Valley  Medical  Associa- 
tion, 122 

Mitchell,  S.  Weir,  Dr.,  519,  531 

Modern  Language  Association,  214, 
216 

Montgomery,  Thomas  L.,  371 

Morton,  Thomas  G.,  Dr.,  38 

Moulton,  R.  G.,  Professor,  385,  387 

Mount  Gretna,  129 

Midler,  Max,  Professor,  454 

Museum,  the  Free,  of  Science  and 
Art   (Archaeological),  423-453 

Museums,  the  Philadelphia  (com- 
mercial), 394-422 

Music,  Department  of,  173 

Musser,  J.  H.,  Dr.,  121 

N 
National     Academy     of     Medicine 

(Peru),  127 
National     Educational     Association, 

290-293 
National    University,    286-289,   316- 

324 


New   York    Academy    of   Medicine, 

109 
New  York  Medical  Journal,  116 
New  York  Medical  Society,  70 
New  York  Pathological  Society,  109 
Nolen,  John,  385  (note),  391 
N orris,  William  F.,  Dr.,  43,  44 

O 

Obstetrical  Society  of  Philadelphia, 

62 
Osier,  William,  Dr.,  151 


Pan-American  Congress,  284,  285 
Pan-American     Medical     Congress, 

114,  117-121;    at  Mexico,  122-125, 

150 
Park  Commission,  395,  396 
Parra,  Porferio,  Dr.,  529 
Parrish's  Practical  Pharmacy,  36 
Patterson,  C.  Stuart,  279,  290 
Pattison,  Robert  E.,  Hon.,  333 
Pennsylvania  Hospital,  36,  37,  38 
Pennsylvania      Railroad      Company, 

397 
Pennsylvania  State  Medical  Society, 

62 
Penrose,  R.  A.  F.,  Dr.,  33 
Pepper,  B.  Franklin,  129 
Pepper    Clinical    Laboratory,    131- 

142,  427 
Pepper,  George,  21,  22 
Pepper,  George,  Dr.,  41,  65 
Pepper,  S.  George  (2d),  22  (note), 

369,  370,  371 
Pepper,  George  Wharton,  209   (and 

Preface) 
Pepper,  Henry,  21 
Pepper,  Mrs.,  539,  540    {see  Ferry, 

Frances  Sergeant) 
Pepper,  William,  M.D.  (1808-1864), 

19,  20,  24   (note),  30,  34,  71,  147; 

the    Pepper    Clinical    Laboratory, 

131-142 


548 


INDEX 


Pepper,  William  (1843-1898). 
Birth,  19;  ancestry,  21-23;  child- 
hood and  early  education,  24-25; 
enters  University  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, 26;  at  the  University,  27-33; 
in  the  Medical  Department,  33- 
34;  apothecary  to  Pennsylvania 
Hospital,  36;  and  Dr.  P^dward 
Rhoads,  36,  41,  61,  62,  65,  66; 
Master's  oration,  37;  physician  to 
Lincoln  Institution,  37;  curator 
of  Philadelphia  Hospital,  37 ;  Fel- 
low of  College  of  Physicians,  38; 
lecturer  on  Morbid  Anatomy  at 
University,  38;  lecturer  in  Pathol- 
ogy, 39;  physician  at  Children's 
Hospital,  39;  lecturer  at  Mission 
House,  39;  lecturer  on  Clinical 
Medicine,  40;  member  of  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society,  41; 
President  of  Pathological  So- 
cietj%  41 ;  lecturer  on  Physical 
Diagnosis,  41;  editor  Medical 
Times,  41;  goes  to  Europe  (1871) ; 
project  of  University  Hospital, 
41-44;  his  "Appeal,"  44;  study 
of  hospital  problems,  41-46;  the 
first  hospital  campaign,  47,  48; 
action  of  the  Legislature,  48,  49; 
selection  of  hospital  site,  50,  51; 
petition  to  Councils,  52,  53;  and 
Isaiah  V.  Williamson,  54,  55;  sec- 
ond "  Appeal"  to  the  Legislature, 
55-58;  and  Henry  C.  Gibson,  59, 
60;  paper,  with  Rhoads  and 
Meigs,  on  "  Morphological  Changes 
of  the  Blood  in  Malarial  Fever," 
61 ;  Director,  Biological  Section, 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  63; 
publication  of  medical  lectures, 
1868-70,  62;  paper,  with  Rhoads,  j 
on  "Fluorescence  of  Tissues,"  63;  1 
on  "  Phosphorus  Poisoning  and 
Fatty  Degeneration,"  62;  on  j 
"Variola,"      63;       treatise,      with    i 

549 


Meigs,  on  "  Diseases  of  Children," 
63,  84;  Memoir  of  Meigs,  63,  64; 
articles  on  "  Tracheotomy  in 
Chronic  Laryngitis,"  "  Abdominal 
Tumors,"  "  Cystic  Disease  of  the 
Pancreas,"  "  Progressive  Muscu- 
lar Sclerosis,"  "  Trephining  in 
Cerebral  Disease,"  editorial  on 
"  The  Board  of  Public  Charities," 
on  "  Sclerosis  of  the  Legs  and 
Feet,  with  Anaesthesia  and 
Ataxia,"  on  "  Scirrhus  Pylori," 
64;  on  results  of  his  visit  to 
Europe;  on  "Emphysema  of  the 
Neck,  associated  with  Lesion  of 
the  Lung;"  Memoir  of  Dr. 
Rhoads,  65;  estimate  of,  by 
George  L.  Harrison  and  Alfred 
Stills,  67;  on  "Local  Treatment 
of  Pulmonary  Cavities  by  Injec- 
tion through  the  Chest  Wall;"  on 
"  Progressive  Pernicious  Anasmia, 
or  Anaematosis,"  68 ;  on  "  Sanitary 
Relations  of  Hospitals;"  "En- 
cysted Dropsy  of  the  Ab- 
domen ;"  "  Retro-pharyngeal  Ab- 
scess ;"  "  Cheyne-Stokes  Respira- 
tion in  Tubercular  Meningitis," 
69;  Professor  of  Clinical  Medi- 
cine in  the  University  and  at  Uni- 
versity Hospital,  69;  member  of 
New  York  Medical  Society;  of 
Centennial  Medical  Commission; 
of  Social  Art  Club,  70;    marriage, 

70,  71;  vestryman  of  St.  Mark's, 
71;  Medical  Director  of  Interna- 
tional Exhibition  at  Philadelphia, 

71,  72;  appointed  by  King  of 
Norway  and  Sweden  Knight  Com- 
mander of  the  Order  of  St.  Olaf, 
73;  increased  medical  practice, 
73,  74 ;  on  "  Addison's  Disease," 
"  Administration  of  Nitrate  of 
Silver  and  the  Occurrence  of  a 
Blue   Line   on    the   Gums    as   the 


INDEX 


Earliest  Sign  of  Argyria,"  74; 
Dr.  Ringer's  comment  on  Dr. 
Pepper's  discovery,  74;  address 
on  "  Higher  Medical  Education," 
74,  75,  83;  and  John  Welsh,  75- 
80,  230,  231;  on  "Aneurism  of 
the  Thoracic  Aorta  with  Unusual 
Physical  Signs ;"  on  "  Paracente- 
sis of  the  Pericardium,  with  a 
successful  case;"  on  "Catarrhal 
Jaundice,  with  Special  Reference 
to  the  Internal  Use  of  Nitrate  of 
Silver;"  on  "Functional  and  Or- 
ganic Anaemias  and  Milk  Trans- 
fusion in  their  Treatment;"  on 
"  Koumiss ;"  on  "  Completion  of 
Paracentesis  of  the  Pericardium;" 
on  "  Clinical  Study  of  Exophthal- 
mic Goitre ;"  on  "  Sanitary  and 
Mineral  Waters,"  80;  on  "Re- 
port on  Mineral  Springs"  (with 
Dr.  Bowditch);  on  "Local  Treat- 
ment of  Pulmonary  Cavities;" 
"  Practical  Remarks  on  the  Treat- 
ment of  Asthma;"  on  "  The  Treat- 
ment of  Chronic  Rheumatism;" 
on  "  Administration  of  Phosphoric 
Acid,"  81;  appointed  chairman  of 
the  Section  of  Medicine,  Ameri- 
can Medical  Association,  81 ;  in- 
augurates Charity  Ball,  81,  82; 
"  A  Further  Contribution  to  the 
Local  Treatment  of  Pulmonary 
Cavities,"  82;  "The  Treatment  of 
Typhoid  Fever;"  on  "Catarrhal 
Irritation;"  on  "Effects  of  the 
Prolonged  Use  of  Alcohol  on  the 
Organs  of  Special  Senses;"  as- 
sumes editorship  of  "  The  System 
of  Medicine  by  American  Au- 
thors," 84;  elected  Provost  of 
University,  84,  175;  member  of 
Harrisburg  Pathological  Society; 
president  of  Mutual  Aid  Society 
of    Philadelphia    County    Medical 


Association,  84;  receives  degree. 
Doctor  of  Laws,  from  Lafayette 
College,  84;  tribute  from  Dr. 
Austin  Flint,  85 ;  on  "  Pancreatic 
Diseases,"  85;  member  of  Ameri- 
can Academy  of  Medicine,  85,  86; 
publication  of  lectures  on  "  Renal 
Diseases,"  86 ;  "  Contribution  to 
the  Clinical  Study  of  Typhlitis," 
86;  address  on  "Epilepsy,"  86; 
on  "  Force  vs.  Work:  Some  Prac- 
tical Remarks  on  Dietetics  in  Dis- 
ease," 86-91 ;  honorary  member 
of  the  Medical  and  Chirurgical 
Faculty  of  Maryland,  91 ;  resigns 
chair  of  Clinical  Medicine  at  Uni- 
versity, 91;  elected  Professor  of 
the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Clini- 
cal Medicine,  91,  92;  resigns  from 
Blockley  medical  staff,  92;  pub- 
lication of  his  "  System  of  Medi- 
cine," 92,  93;  on  a  "  Case  of  Addi- 
son's Disease,"  93;  on  precautions 
against  cholera,  93;  consulting- 
physician  to  St.  Christopher's 
Hospital,  94;  president  of  the 
American  Clinical  Association,  94; 
organizes  the  Association  of 
American  Pliysicians,  94;  on 
"  The  Climatological  Study  of 
Phthisis  in  Pennsylvania,"  94-99; 
a  student's  opinion  of,  99;  on 
"  Duodenal  Ulcer,"  99 ;  "  Diseases 
of  the  Caecal  Region,"  99;  as  a 
physician,  101-102;  on  "New 
Methods  of  Diagnosis  in  Gastric 
Diseases,"  102;  on  "  Albuminosis, 
102;  on  "  Cardiocentesis,"  102; 
symposium,  102;  consulting  phy- 
sician of  Northern  Dispensary, 
Philadelphia,  103;  attendance  on 
General  Sheridan,  103-107;  on 
"  Functional  Disorders  of  the 
Stomach,"  107;  on  "Duodenal 
and     Gastric     Ulcers,"     107;      on 


550 


INDEX 


"  Multiple  Cardiac  Lesion,"  108 ; 
■■'  A  Few  Practical  Remarks  on 
Continued  Slight  Fever,"  108;  ad- 
dress on  Dr.  Rush,  108;  on  "He- 
patic Fever,"  —  Middleton-Gold- 
smith  lectures,  109;  publication  of 
lectures  on  "  Locomotor  Ataxia," 
109 ;  on  "  Frequency  and  Char- 
acter of  the  Pneumonia  of  1890," 
109 ;  on  "  Aneurism  of  the  Aorta 
Rupturing  into  the  Superior  Vena 
Cava"  (with  Dr.  J.  P.  Crozer 
Griffith),  109;  and  Horace  How- 
and  Furness,  109,  110;  failing 
health,  110;  tribute  to  Dr.  Joseph 
Leidy,  110-113;  President  of  the 
Pan-American  Medical  Congress, 
114;  Editor  of  Department  of 
Medicine,  Surgery,  and  Collateral 
Science,  Johnson's  Revised  Cyclo- 
paedia, 115;  Chairman  of  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Third  Con- 
gress of  American  Phj'^sicians  and 
Surgeons,  115;  publication  of 
"Text-Book  of  Medicine  by 
American  Teachers,"  116;  on 
"  Some  Unusual  Types  of  Pneu- 
monia," 116;  presidential  address 
to  Pan-American  Medical  Con- 
gress, 116,  117;  at  the  Congress, 
117-121;  on  "  A  Case  of  Purulent 
Pericarditis,  or  Paracentesis  of 
the  Pericardium,"  with  notes  by 
Drs.  J.  H.  Musser  and  John  B. 
Deaver,  121;  honorary  member  of 
Cleveland  Medical  Society,  121 ; 
honorary  member  of  Pittsburg 
Academy  of  Medicine,  122;  on 
"  Malignant  Endocarditis"  (with 
Dr.  Alfred  Stengel),  123;  on  a 
case  of  "  Phthisis  Apparently 
Cured,"  122;  address  on  Daniel 
Drake,  122;  Pan-American  Con- 
gress at  Mexico,  122-125;  hon- 
orary  member   of    Medical    Asso- 


ciation of  King's  County,  and  of 
Railroad  Conductors'  Club  of 
North  America,  125;  his  relation 
to  railroad  men,  125;  his  attitude 
towards  subordinate  officials,  126; 
honorary  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Medicine  of  Mexico,  126,  127; 
consulting  physician  to  Philadel- 
phia Hospital  for  Women,  127; 
Foreign  Corresponding  Member 
of  the  National  Academy  of  Med- 
icine, Peru,  127;  letters  to,  from 
Drs.  F.  M.  Banderson  and  W. 
Gairdner,  126-129;  commissioner 
to  examine  medical  officers  of  the 
National  Guard,  129;  at  Mount 
Gretna,  129;  last  meeting  with 
his  son  B.  Franklin  Pepper,  129; 
his  diary,  130;  on  "Abrupt  Onset 
in  Typhoid  Fever"  (with  Dr. 
Stengel),  130;  establishes  the 
Pepper  Clinical  I  laboratory  as  a 
memorial  to  his  father,  131-142; 
extent  of  his  medical  writings, 
142-143;  estimate  of,  as  a  physi- 
cian, 143-153;  his  relation  to  the 
University  as  undergraduate,  26- 
34;  elected  Provost,  175,  176;  in- 
auguration, 177,  178;  inaugural 
address,  177,  178;  his  policy  of 
enlarging  the  property  of  the 
University,  179-182;  free  city 
scholarships,  182;  reforms,  182- 
183;  Wharton  School,  183-185; 
founding  of  new  schools  and  de- 
partments (1883),  184-187;  Law 
School  building  projected,  188, 
189;  Veterinary  School,  189-190, 
207;  Faculty  of  Philosophy,  191; 
college  athletics,  193;  Depart- 
ment of  Physical  Culture,  193, 
205;  banquet  to  I>ord  Chief  Jus- 
tice Coleridge,  Dr.  Pepper's  ad- 
dress on  education  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  194-197; 


551 


INDEX 


at  McGill  University,  198,  199; 
originates  the  Provost  reports, 
199;  first  report,  200-201;  Bio- 
logical School,  203;  College 
Chapel,  205;  on  Matthew  Arnold, 
210-213;  address  before  Modern 
Language  Association,  214—216; 
address  on  Franklin,  at  Franklin 
and  Marshall  College,  216-226; 
appeal  for  higher  medical  educa- 
tion (the  Delmonico  dinner),  227- 
228;  remarks  on  college  athletics, 
229-230;  tribute  to  John  Welsh, 
230-231;  chairman  of  Seybert 
Commission,  232;  services  in  re- 
lation to  the  one  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
232-239;  Association  of  Colleges, 
239-240,  266-268;  his  ideal  of  the 
University,  240,  241,  244;  exten- 
sion of  medical  course,  246;  im- 
provements in  the  Law  School, 
246-247;  announcement  to  the 
Trustees  of  intention  to  resign  the 
Provostship  (1887),  248-251;  his 
educational  ideals,  252-255;  letter 
to  Dr.  J.  L.  Stewart,  of  Erie,  255- 
257;  tribute  to  Dr.  D.  Hayes  Ag- 
new,  257-261 :  address  on  "  The 
Higher  Education  of  Women,"  at 
Ogontz,  261-266;  further  acqui- 
sition of  land  for  the  University, 
269;  completion  of  the  Library 
Building,  269-271 ;  the  University 
Lecture  Association,  272-273 ; 
University  Extension  and  the 
University,  273;  effort  to  co- 
ordinate the  scientific  work  of 
Philadelphia,  273-275;  founds  the 
Archaeological  Association,  and 
plans  for  a  great  museum,  275, 
276  (see  Archaeological  Museum) ; 
presence  at  the  fire  in  the  Medical 
Hall,   277;     memorandum   on   the 


Department  of  Hygiene,  278-279; 
letter  to  Hon.  Seth  Low,  281;  his 
personal  responsibility  at  the  Uni- 
versity, 282-283;  Pan-American 
Congress  delegates  at  the  Univer- 
sity, 284-285;  remarks  on  "The 
Ideal  University,"  286-290;  the 
Saratoga  address  on  "  The  Rela- 
tion of  Undergraduate  to  Post- 
graduate Curricula,"  290-293; 
opening  of  the  Institute  of  Hy- 
giene, 295;  letters  from  Henry 
Charles  Lea,  295-297;  remarks 
by  Dr.  Pepper,  297-298;  on  the 
cost  of  collegiate  administration, 
300-301;  his  attitude  towards  the 
higher  education  of  women,  302- 
309;  on  the  extension  of  the  den- 
tal course,  310;  on  the  need  of  a 
gymnasium,  312;  on  college  dor- 
mitories, 313;  second  address  on 
"  Higher  Medical  Education,"  at 
the  inauguration  of  the  four 
years'  medical  course,  315-316; 
efforts  to  have  Congress  establish 
a  National  University,  316-324; 
I'esignation  of  the  office  of  Provost 
of  the  University,  324-330;  pre- 
sentation of  the  bust  of,  to  the 
Trustees,  and  address  by  Horace 
Howard  Furness,  D.C.L.,  332-348; 
summary  of  Dr.  Pepper's  services 
as  Provost,  348-354,  363-366;  ad- 
dress on  "  National  and  Municipal 
Relations  of  the  Medical  Profes- 
sion," before  the  Cleveland  Medi- 
cal Society,  354-357;  last  report 
as  Provost,  357-361;  the  Wistar 
Institute  of  Anatomy  and  Biol- 
ogy, 361-362;  and  the  Free  Li- 
brary of  Philadelphia,  369-384; 
and  Universitj^  Extension,  385- 
393;  and  the  Philadelphia  Mu- 
seums, 394-422;  and  the  Free 
Museum  of  Science  and  Art,  423- 


552 


INDEX 


453;  and  Professor  Max  Miiller, 
454;  and  William  Spottiswood, 
455;  and  Sir  Henry  T.  Holland, 
455;  conversation  with  Lord 
Playfair,  on  Scotch  Universities, 
455;  on  working,  455;  on  sleep, 
456-457;  habits  of  working,  457- 
458;  his  work  at  the  University, 
459-460;  his  plans  of  educational 
work,  459;  anecdote  of  him  in  his 
fourth  year,  459;  his  labor  for 
public  reforms,  460;  does  not 
escape  the  penalty  of  his  devotion, 
460;  his  civic  campaigns,  461- 
463;  comments  on  the  death  of 
Mr.  A.  J.  Drexel,  464;  his  method 
of  enlisting  new  recruits,  465;  ex- 
actions of  his  professional  labors, 
465,  466;  his  life  at  Northeast 
Harbor,  466,  467;  a  believer  in 
advertising,  466;  on  the  Municipal 
League,  467;  his  relation  to  the 
political  "machine,'"  467-468;  his 
moralitj^  468;  his  eagerness  to  re- 
sign the  Provostship,  469;  the 
fight  for  the  Boulevard,  470;  his 
desire  to  establish  a  sj'stera  of 
museums  in  Philadelphia,  470- 
471;  his  domestic  life,  471-472; 
reads  Seneca  and  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  his  comments,  473-474;  the 
struggle  for  the  Museum  site,  474; 
death  of  his  mother,  475;  marked 
failure  of  his  own  health,  475;  the 
Civic  Club,  475-476;  Physical  col-  ! 
lapse,  476;  his  love  of  details,  I 
476-477;  his  extraordinary  activ-  i 
ity,  477-478;  his  appeals  to  Coun- 
cils for  the  Museums,  479^80; 
physical  weakness,  480-481,  482- 
483;  success  with  his  plans,  484; 
journey,  with  his  family,  to  the 
Pacific  Coast,  485-486;  his  anx-  : 
iety  over  civic  matters  and  liis 
physical   weakness,   486-487;    life 

553 


at  the  Hacienda,  488,  symptoms 
of  paralysis,  489;  regains  strength 
and  resumes  his  work  for  the  Mu- 
seums, 489;  alarmed  at  the  pros- 
pect of  the  winter's  work  before 
him,  490;  his  life  in  a  sentence, 
490;  interest  in  the  presidential 
campaign,  491;  another  attack  of 
angina  pectoris,  491 ;  prepara- 
tions for  a  trip  to  Mexico,  491; 
dinner  to  Mr.  Brunetiere,  493;  the 
Loan  Bill,  493,  499,  503,  503,  506, 
507-511;  interests  President  Mc- 
Kinley  in  the  Commercial  Mu- 
seums, 493;  precarious  state  of 
his  health,  494;  influences  Coun- 
cils to  support  the  Museums,  494 
the  Commercial  Congress,  495 
trip  to  Canada  for  health,  496 
vain  attempts  to  get  rest,  496- 
497;  clear  understanding  of  his 
state  of  health,  497-498;  his  civic 
program,  498;  generous  response 
by  City  Councils  to  his  appeal  for 
appropriations  to  the  Free  Li- 
brary, 498;  the  land  for  the  Mu- 
seums, 499;  last  labors  for  estab- 
lishing a  National  University,  500; 
"  collapse  and  relapse,"  501 ;  the 
"infernal  water  scheme,"  503; 
goes  to  Florida  to  recuperate,  504- 
505,  506;  return  home,  sickness, 
activity,  509-511;  death  of  his  sis- 
ter, Mrs.  Leonard,  510;  arrival  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  509,  511;  the 
closing  days,  512-518;  the  jour- 
ney home,  the  funeral,  518-519; 
estimate  of  his  life,  work,  and 
character,  520-527;  the  memorial 
service  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  528- 
530;  tlie  memorial  service  at  the 
University  of  Pennsj'lvania,  531- 
535;  his  friends  erect  a  bronze 
statue  to  his  memory,  537-540; 
the  unveiling  of  the  statue,  539 


INDEX 


Pepper,  WiUiam  Piatt,  TO,  107  (and 
Preface),  519 

Perry,  Christopher  Grant,  Dr.,  70, 
71 

Perry,  Frances  Sergeant  (Mrs.  Pep- 
per), 70 

Perry,  Oliver  Hazard,  Commodore, 
71 

Peters,  John  P.,  Rev.,  423,  446 

Philadelphia  County  Medical  So- 
ciety, 62 

Philadelphia  Hospital  (Blockley), 
37,  39 

Philadelphia  Hospital  for  Women, 
127 

Philadelphia  Medical  Journal,  130, 
151 

Philadelphia  Medical  Times,  64,  65, 
69,  80,  81,  109 

Philadelphia  Times,  383,  384 

Philomathean  Society,  32 

Philosophy,  Department  of,  191,  244 

Physical  Culture,  Department  of, 
193,  205 

Pittsburg  Academy  of  Medicine,  121 

Piatt,  Mrs.  Charles,  425 

Piatt,  Sarah,  22,  23,  475 

Play  fair,  Lyon,  Sir,  98,  455 

Public  Building  Commission,  395 

R 

Railroad  Conductors'  Club  of  North 

America,  125 
Reboller,  Rafael,  Hon.,  528 
Reed,  Thomas  B.,  Hon.,  417 
Reese,  John  J.,  Dr.,  293 
Rhoads,  Edwards,  Dr.,  36,  41,  61,  62, 

65,   66 
Richards,  J.  Havens,  S.J.,  293 
Richards,  Professor,  167 
Roberts,  George  B.,  374 
Rogers,  Robert  E.,  Dr.,  33,  38 
Rcmeo,  Matias,  Hon.,  529 
Rosengarten,  Joseph  G.,  519 
Rothrock,  Joseph  T.,  Dr.,  243,  364 


Rush,  Benjamin,  Dr.,  108,  189,  190 
Ryder,  John,  Professor,  364 


Sadler,  Michael  E.,  386,  387 
Sayre,  Lewis  A.,  Dr.,  116 
Scholarship,      Benjamin      Franklin 

192;    City,  180,  240 
Schoolmaster's  Association,  213 
School  of  Architecture,  299 
School  of  Design  for  Women,  395 
School  of  Industrial  Arts,  70 
Seward,  Frederick  W.,  Hon.,  75 
Seybert  Commission,  194,  232 
Seybert,  Henry,  59,  60,  194,  232 
Sharswood,  George,  Hon.,  188,  193 
Shaw,  W.  Hudson,  Rev.,  388 
Sheridan,  Michael  V.,  Colonel,  105, 

106 
Sheridan,   Philip    H.,   General,   103- 

107 
Sleep,  Dr.  Pepper's  memoranda  on, 

456,  457 
Smith,  Francis  G.,  Dr.,  33 
Smith,  Henry  H.,  Dr.,  33 
Smith,   William,    Provost,    159,    163, 

170 
Social  Art  Club,  70 
Sommerville,     Maxwell,     Professor, 

426 
Spottiswood,  William,  455 
State    Asylum    (Insane),    Lebanon, 

121 
Stengel,  Alfred,  Dr.,  122  (and  Pref- 
ace) 
Stevenson,  Mrs.  Cornelius,  307,  308, 

425   (and  Preface),  427,  428,  429, 

430,  438,  447,  448,  511 
Stewardson,  Edmund  A.,  294 
Stewart,  J.  L.,  Dr.,  255 
Stille,  Alfred,  Dr.,  67,  114,  115,  117 
Stills,  Charles  J.,   Provost,  157-173, 

271 
StilM  Medical  Library,  277 
St.  Memin,  22 


554 


INDEX 


Stoklej,  Waiiam  S.,  52 
Strawbridge,  Justus  C,  440,  441 
Stuart,  Edwin  S.,  Hon.,  371,  394 


Taylor,  Alonzo  E.,  Dr.,  512-518 
Thayer,  M.  Russell,  Hon.,  370 
Thompson,  John,  375,  382,  532  (and 

Preface) 
Tower,  Charlemagne,  Hon.,  426,  430, 

443 
Towne    Scientific    School,    169,    183, 

185,  242 
Training  School  for  Nurses,  247 
"Treasure  Island,"  518 
Truman,  James,  Dr.,  188 
Tyndall,  John,  Professor,  202 
Tyson,    James,    Dr.,    147,    149,    324, 

527,  531 

U 
Union  Home  (or  Mission),  41 
University  Extension,  385-393 
University  Lecture  Association,  272, 

273,  314 
University    Medical    Magazine,    102, 

116,  121 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  William 
Pepper  enters,  25,  26;  Depart- 
ment of  Arts  (1858),  27-31;  Med- 
ical Department  (1862),  33,  34; 
Hospital,    41-60;     history    (1862- 


1881),  157-179 
1884),  179-198 
1888),  198-227 
1894),  227-286 


history  (1881- 
history  (1885- 
history     (1888- 


Veterinary  Hospital,  207,  280,  311 
Veterinary  School,  189,  190,  207,  311 
Vethake,  Professor,  30 


W 

Wagner  Institute,  372 
Wagner,  Samuel,  373 
WaUace,  WilUam  A.,  58 
Wanamaker,  John,  Hon.,  449 
Warwick,  Charles  F.,  Hon.,  438,  519, 

532 
Weightman,  Mr.,  395 
Welch,  William  D.,  Dr.,  140,  141 
Welsh,  John,  29,  48,  75,  76,  77,  78, 

79,  160,  161,  162,  163,  166,  167,  168, 

175,  230 
Wetherill,  Professor,  167 
Wharton,  Joseph,  178,  272 
Wharton  School,  178,  183,  185,  201, 

243,  299 
White,  J.  William,  Dr.,  185,  205 
Widener  Lecture  HaU,  539 
Widener    (H.  Josephine)   memorial, 

380,  382,  499 
Widener,  P.  A.  B.,  379,  481,  499,  519 
Williams,  Talcott,  Dr.,  450,  451 
Williamson,  Isaiah  V.,  54,  55 
Wilson,  James,  Hon.,  27,  188 
Wilson,   W.    P.,   Dr.,   364,   394-395, 

479,  532  (and  Preface) 
Wistar,  Caspar,  Dr.,  39 
Wistar-Horner  Museum,  277 
Wistar    Institute   of    Anatomy    and 

Biology,  361-362 
Wistar,   Isaac  J.,   General,  39,  362, 

519,  531  (and  Preface) 
Wood,  George  B.,  Dr.,  187 
Wood,  Horatio  C,  Dr.,  43 
Wood,  Richard,  54 
Writings    (see  under  William   Pep- 
per) 


Zelosophic  Society,  32,  33 


555 


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